


Miscommunication Is Key

by Bagoftricks



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, Other People Show Up Too, Really this is silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-17 18:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 41,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bagoftricks/pseuds/Bagoftricks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone seems to think Mikasa and Annie are dating. Mikasa is pretty sure they don't even talk, but hey. What does she know?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Know What They Say About When You Assume

**Author's Note:**

> Slightly AU (in that giant man-eating monsters aren't wandering around so the kids go to a relatively normal boarding school instead).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa and Krista are too laughably oblivious to really understand what the other is trying to accomplish.

“Mikasa, can I speak with you for a moment?”

It isn’t often that people come to speak with Mikasa. Typically they are put off by her affinity for silence. That, or Eren’s obnoxious presence causes them to steer clear. She isn’t all too surprised, then, when she turns and sees Krista. Krista has a knack for not noticing things that cause most others discomfort (or just blatantly ignoring them). For example, she spends about ninety percent of her time with Ymir. How she manages to do so is a mystery. Popular theory is that Krista is some otherworldly being- most likely celestial in origin- that feeds off of negativity and uses it to create sunshine and rainbows and other good things. And negativity can be found in Ymir like candy on Halloween. Knock on the door and bam, you’re drowning in small plastic packages of candy-coated despair.

That’s not to say Mikasa considers herself similar to Ymir. Oh no. Mikasa has class. She is respectful, diligent, and able to manage her time. She doesn’t procrastinate, nor does she go out of her way to pick fights. She is quiet, keeps her opinions to herself unless stating them is appropriate and beneficial to the situation.

It seems, however, that the entirety of the 104th Class consists of idiots and rabbits and so Mikasa’s intellect and maturity is seen as something terrifying.

Teenagers.

Krista shifts, and suddenly Mikasa realizes she has yet to indicate that she has acknowledged, or even heard, her request. “Yes, of course. What is it you need?”

“Well… may I be blunt?”

“Whatever suits you.”

Krista looks up and down the hallway, checking for any who may be in earshot. The lunch bell rang just a few minutes prior, however, and so every living soul has migrated to the cafeteria. Even so, Krista seems unwilling to speak in the hall. “Could we move to the classroom?”

Mikasa is beginning to be troubled by Krista’s hesitance. It is rare to see such unease on her face. “Is something wrong?” Mikasa asks as she shuts the door behind her.

“No… It’s just that…” Mikasa waits patiently as Krista searches for the words. She spends several quiet minutes shuffling her feet and fidgeting with her fingers. She issues an apology and tries again, only to trail off and drag her gaze to the floor.

“Krista, you can speak freely with me.” Mikasa promises. “I am willing to hear you out.” She won’t admit it openly, but worry begins to gnaw at her belly. “Is it… something Ymir has done?”

“Goodness, no!” Krista’s cheeks are red and she shakes her head almost desperately. “It’s nothing like that! She’s lovely! Let me just…” She takes in a deep breath. Then, “Is it you who tops, or Annie?” The words come out on the exhale, almost too jumbled to be heard as Krista rushes them out. As soon as they leave her lips, the blonde looks like she wishes she could reach out and snatch them away, hide them or burn them perhaps.

What a strange girl. “I do.” Mikasa had thought that this was common knowledge? She is number one in the class, after all.

Krista heaves a sigh. She seems more at ease now. “I thought so… Then, could I ask for your help, if it isn’t too strange?”

Mikasa nods. She is already formulating a studying schedule in her mind. Krista is a pretty average student, but if she applies herself and studies with the right person (Mikasa trusts that she is not being conceited when she has herself in mind, because it is true) she could easily get into the 104th’s top ten.

“With Ymir… she’s…” Krista is having trouble with words again. Mikasa understands. Ymir is Krista’s best friend, and Krista is normally so quick to defend her, it must be hard to finally say that Ymir may not be the best studying partner. “She’s very kind.”

“I’m sure she is.” Mikasa lets the additional “to you” go unsaid.

“And she never does anything to make me uncomfortable… that is, she always makes sure I’m okay with what we’re doing.”

“Go on.”

“It’s just that… She’s always in charge.” Her face is so red; it’s adorable. If talking about schoolwork really gets Krista this worked up, perhaps she truly does need a different studying partner. Mikasa can’t help but be amused. “And it’s nice. She knows what she’s doing and she always takes care of me. But, you know… for once, I think maybe I’d like to turn things around. And I think Ymir might enjoy it too.”

Mikasa nods. Perhaps if Krista begins to get better grades than Ymir, Ymir might follow her lead and start working harder.

“The problem is, I don’t know how to go about it. So I thought… Perhaps I could ask you for help?” Krista is back to looking at the ground.

“Of course.”

“I want to repeat… I don’t want to seem strange. I just wasn’t sure who I could come to… But when I thought about it, I realized that you and Annie are both very dominant people.” Krista says. “So you know how it is to try and get someone who likes to be in charge and convince them to be submissive. That’s why I came to you. I want to be able to top Ymir in bed too.”

“Of course.” The words roll off of her tongue and over her lips. They float in the air towards an overjoyed Krista. Then they suddenly become heavy and drop to the floor with an audible crack (or maybe that was the sound of the desk Mikasa’s been sitting at fracturing as her hands clench around the edge). “Wait. _What_.”

What?

 _WHAT_.

What did Mikasa just agree to?

They were talking about grades, weren’t they?

So what… what does… Ymir… in bed… What does that have to do with anything?!

“Could you maybe repeat your request?” Mikasa asks in as level a voice as she can.

“I wish for you to teach me how to top Ymir.”

“In bed?”

Krista starts to look genuinely confused. “Where else would I… Oh!” She blushes. “My mistake!”

Yes. Her huge fucking mistake.

“It’s silly of me, isn’t it? Ymir and I are roommates so we don’t have to sneak around very much. It must be much harder because you and Annie are not. You must meet in all sorts of interesting places.”

No. No, no, no, no, no. This isn’t happening.

“Krista, I think… there has been a mistake.” Mikasa is trying to aim for her typical cool-headed approach to everything. She has total control over herself. Perfect self-control. She isn’t blushing, she isn’t shaking, her voice is totally steady. Anyone who says otherwise is a lying bastard.

“A mistake?” She asks, tilting her head. “What do you mean?”

“Annie and I… we aren’t…” Mikasa trails off.

Krista is looking at her with those wide blue eyes, expectant and curious. Eager, even. Mikasa can see those expressive eyes filling with tears as embarrassment floods over her. The poor girl would probably never show her face around Mikasa again.

“We…” Krista leans forward, concentration etched into her eyebrows.

Oh, for god’s sake.

“We talk.” Mikasa says firmly. “Communication. It’s important. Talk to Ymir, tell her you want to change things up a little. I mean, it’s that or just go for it. That’s all I can really say.”

“That’s… that’s so simple.” Krista mulls it over quietly. Then she smiles at Mikasa. “Thank you so much!”

“… Yes. Of course.” She tries to think of a way to add in the fact that she and Annie aren’t together, and that she doesn’t even like girls in the first place, but Krista has already rocketed up out of her chair.

“Ah! This took longer than I thought. Ymir is probably wondering where I am. Shall we go to the cafeteria now?”

“… Yes.”

She silently follows Krista, running scenarios through her mind. The chance to casually bring up the truth seems to have passed, though. How, exactly, did Krista even get that idea about Mikasa and Annie in the first place? Do Mikasa and Annie even talk to each other all that much?

Lunch is already halfway through by the time Mikasa and Krista arrive. Ymir waves and immediately her friend ( _girl_ friend??) goes to her.

“What’s wrong with you?” Eren asks as Mikasa takes a seat across from him, luckily on the other side of the cafeteria.

“You look like you just saw someone get eaten alive.” Connie adds with a good-natured laugh.

Annie puts a hand on her shoulder. “Should I take you to the nurse?”

“Please…” Mikasa crosses her arms on the table and slowly lays her head facedown upon them. “Do not touch or speak to me.”

“Mikasa?” Eren prompts.

Her head shoots up. Eren nearly screams. The look in her eye is unreadable yet terrifying. “Eren. Please date me.”

“What?!”

“Just for a little while. Please.”

“W-why should I?!”

“I am willing to beg. Please do not force me to resort to begging.”

“Where is this even coming from?!”

Connie’s enjoyment of the strange and out-of-character scene is suddenly interrupted by the uncomfortable sensation of a hand running down his back. “Hey!” He shakes himself and glares at the hand’s owner. “What the hell did you just wipe on my shirt?!”

Jean has a rather distant look in his eye as he quietly answers, “My remaining hope for happiness.”


	2. It Keeps Happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You'd think Annie's own best friends would know, but apparently nobody knows anything in this godforsaken school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I post things, I tend to become immediately embarrassed about them and then avoid looking at them for months on end. As such, I didn't realize people. Liked it? A little? I guess?? Thanks guys.  
> A few people asked for another chapter/sequel so. Here you go. It's gonna be a three-parter. At least. I don't know, I haven't written the rest of it (hadn't planned on it until now), so it may be a little longer? Probably no longer than five or so. I'm gonna go with three to be safe though.
> 
> About the actual chapter, there's a bit where the tense changes from present to past to present again. I'm aware of this, it was done intentionally, but if it reads weird please let me know! Since it came from my head, I obviously understand the context of what I was trying to accomplish, but if it seems strange I'll definitely change it.

Mikasa really doesn’t know how she keeps getting pulled into these situations.

She’s smarter than this- really, she is! She is literally _the smartest person in their class_.

But this is the second time she has _failed to pick up_ on what it is she is _actually talking about_.

Her people skills aren’t _that_ bad, right?

She isn’t really _that_ oblivious, is she?

She stares blankly at Bertholdt and Reiner, trying to process their words, but instead she ends replaying the past few minutes in head desperately trying to find out _where she went wrong_.

She had been sitting at her desk, packing up her things, avidly avoiding eye contact with Krista or Annie (as has been her routine for the past week or so). Eren and Armin, bless their souls, were waiting for her, instead of Eren tearing off to the cafeteria like he had some all-important quest and Armin meekly following.

And she had almost done it, too. Almost made it yet another day without Krista asking about her relationship with Annie, almost made it another day without having to sputter through another awkward conversation.

But then Reiner and Bertholdt happened.

“Hey,” Reiner had said, rising up behind Armin and eliciting a frightened squeak from the much smaller blond. “Mikasa, got a second?”

While Reiner voluntarily coming to speak with Mikasa wasn’t quite the norm, it wasn’t completely uncalled for, either. He’s buddies with Eren and Armin- he and Eren are both on the men’s wrestling team- so they’ve spoken before.

“Go ahead, guys.” Mikasa had said to her friends. “I’ll catch up.”

Eren didn’t need to be told twice. Armin, at the very least, left with a small wave.

The classroom emptied out until it was just Reiner, Bertholdt, and herself.

“What did you need?”

“Bert and I need some advice.” Reiner was still standing, towering over her though that wasn’t his intent. “We’re both having a bit of trouble at home.”

“I see.” Like a fool, she had been gearing herself up once again for a discussion about grades. It’s no secret that Reiner isn’t the brightest bulb in their class; and Bertholdt is smart, but he could work harder.

“I tried coming out to my parents over the weekend.” Reiner had said. “It… didn’t go all that well.”

Though Mikasa had (barely) managed to keep a straight face, she was screaming internally. Why? Why did this keep happening?!

“His dad called my parents.” Bertholdt added. “They don’t know about me yet, but they don’t want me to room with him anymore. They don’t even want us to hang out anymore. They told me that if I started acting like that, they’d cut me off.”

“You seem to have everything figured out. Can you, I don’t know, help us out a bit? I know it’s a lot to ask, but Krista said you were definitely the person to come to.”

Mikasa hadn’t known what to say- still doesn’t know what to say. She is still sitting at her desk, still craning her neck up to look at Reiner and Bertholdt, still screaming bloody murder in the confines of her mind.

It’s a good thing she has a great poker face.

“I don’t know if I’m the person to come to about this.” She says very gently. Misunderstandings aside, this is an important issue and she does have enough humanity in her to care about their well being. “The school counselor might be a better option.”

Bertholdt actually gives her a _look_. “Are you really suggesting we take this to _Levi_?”

Admittedly, talking about their problems to someone even more unapproachable than herself probably seems like an intimidating prospect, but-

But why is _she_ ideal in all their minds? She is not some sort of _guru_. She has no idea why this keeps happening.

“Look…” She sighs. They look so scared. Maybe all they need are a few words of encouragement. “It’s going to be hard. But maybe… give your parents some time to calm down. You all had a pretty good relationship before this, didn't you? Maybe they just need some time to adjust. And please, _please_ ,” She pauses for emphasis, “Talk to someone who isn’t me about this. I really think I am not the person to come to.”

Reiner nods a few times. Bertholdt heaves a huge, heavy sigh. “Alright. Okay. I think Levi is in his office right now, right?”

Reiner continues nodding. “Mikasa, thanks. That does help a little.” He smiles softly. “Annie sure is lucky.”

She thinks she might explode.

Does _everyone_ think she and Annie are dating?! Shouldn’t Annie’s own _best friends_ know the truth?!

As Reiner and Bertholdt wander off, Mikasa tries to think of all the ways people might confuse her vague awareness of Annie’s existence as a mutual romantic attraction.

They’re both on the school’s women’s wrestling team, along with Ymir and a few others. They have one or two classes together. They eat lunch together, but only because Annie follows Reiner and Bertholdt when they come to sit with Eren. They don’t say much to each other. They sit next to each other sometimes, maybe.

That’s about it?

Mikasa shakes her head. She’ll never understand. She’s resigned herself to it.

She heads to the cafeteria. She still has about ten minutes to eat her lunch- and maybe beg Eren, once again, to be her pretend-boyfriend (not that it worked last time).

As she approaches the cafeteria, she hears footsteps coming in the opposite direction. She lifts her eyes off of the floor to see Annie, slouched over, hands shoved in her pockets, looking about as interested as ever. As they pass each other, they briefly make eye contact. Annie comes to a stop. “Hey, Mikasa.”

Mikasa internally sighs and readies herself for round three. “Yes?”

“Have you seen Reiner and Bertholdt?”

It takes her a moment to realize this isn’t going to be another roundabout conversation stemming from the fact that the other party mistakenly believes her to be dating Annie. It takes her another moment to realize that the other party in question _is_ Annie and it wouldn’t make much sense for Annie to think they’re dating.

Isn’t Mikasa supposed to be smarter than this?

This is all Krista’s fault.

Not like she’d ever date Annie anyways. She’s way too quiet. Two quiet people dating just doesn’t make sense. What would she and Annie do together anyways? Sit together in silence? Maybe Mikasa would do nothing but read; not much of a change from her normal routine.

Now that she thinks about it, Annie tends to have a book on hand. She doesn’t burn through them as quickly as Mikasa, and she doesn’t _always_ have one, but she does seem to enjoy reading more than most of the other kids in their class.

So maybe they could read together; cuddle up by a fireplace in a grand library with sprawling bookshelves and thick plush carpets, sharing their silence, the only thing grounding them to the real world the warm pressure of their touching shoulders and the musty smell of old books and maybe each other’s perfume.

What an absurd idea. It doesn’t sound appealing at all. Not even a lit-

Annie is staring at her. She seems to be growing impatient.

Oh. Right. She asked her a question.

What was it?

Oh! About Reiner and Bertholdt.

“They went to speak with Levi, I believe.”

Annie starts walking again as if she had never stopped to talk to Mikasa.

“Hold on.” The curiosity is eating Mikasa alive, and maybe Annie will have an answer. “Annie, why do people seem to think we’re dating?”

Annie doesn’t even turn around, but she does stop dead in her tracks. After a few moments of mulling the question over, she says, “That’s stupid.”

She disappears around the corner just as the bell rings. Mikasa tries to take comfort in the idea that Annie seems just as thrown by the idea of their invented relationship, but instead she keeps thinking about an invented fireplace in an invented library.

Mikasa gives herself a mental shake, clearing the thoughts from her head.

“Mikasa!” Armin calls out to her as he and Eren make their way over among the flood of students pouring out of the cafeteria. “Where were you?”

“Doesn’t matter. Eren,” She shifts her attention to him. His demeanor changes, stance shifting from that of greeting a friend to one of an animal preparing to flee.

“Are you going to ask me to date you again? I told you no last time. We already live together, you're like my sister, it’d be weird, plus you’re bossy-,”

Actually, she had been about to point out the brand new ketchup stain on his favorite shirt, but punching him is just much more satisfying and relieves a little bit of the stress that’s been building up ever since Krista decided to ruin her life.


	3. Ymir is Trash. Pass It On.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But really what were you expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm no detective, but this maybe will not probably be three chapters. Who knows how long this will be. The answer is not that long. A conclusion is over the horizon probably maybe.  
> Also Ymir calls Krista Historia. Everyone else calls her Krista. So it is written, so it shall be, or something silly like that.

Mikasa has been spending more time than she would like to admit thinking about Annie- not for those reasons, though. Really.

It’s just been bothering her. Krista being confused, she can understand, but the more she thinks about it the less sense it makes to her that Reiner and Bertholdt- Annie’s self-proclaimed best friends- made the same mistake.

She’s had a few days to think about it more and she just can’t get to the bottom of it.

Admittedly, it would probably help if her thoughts would stop gravitating around silly little scenarios of her and Annie doing quiet couply things, like going out and getting coffee, or taking naps, or going out on walks. Thoughts like this had never crossed her mind before but now it’s happening and she’s confused, maybe a little scared, but mostly just kind of frustrated. It’s not like it’d ever happen. This is all the result of a huge misunderstanding; Annie even said so herself. Sort of.

She thinks about Annie, back turned, declaring the thought of any sort of relationship with her as stupid. Annie had probably thought nothing of it. Neither had Mikasa, at the time, but now she looks back on it and feels just a little more crushed each time she calls the memory back to mind.

Which is silly. Mikasa had thought much the same thing at the start of this.

But if she thought that at the start of this, what does she think now?

She doesn’t get any more time to think it over; someone knocks on the door, jolting her out of her thoughts. Her eyes focus on the book in her hands (that’s right, she had been trying to read, hadn’t she?). She closes it and gets up to open the door. Sasha probably forgot her keys again. The sooner Mikasa lets her roommate in, the sooner she can go back to brooding.

“Yo, took you long enough.”

Mikasa can hardly get a word out before Ymir shoulders past her and into her room.

“Um… what are you doing?”

“Historia told me you’re the one to come to if I need a bit of help.” She flops down on Sasha’s bed.

“No. Oh no.” Mikasa is putting her foot down. “Not you too.”

Ymir leans up on her elbows, cocking an eyebrow at her. “What?”

“Look, I’m not dating Annie. I’m not. Okay? We hardly even talk! You of all people should know that, Ymir! You’ve been on the wrestling team with us since freshman year. So you _know_. Annie and I aren’t dating.”

Ymir smirks and sits up fully. “Jesus, Ackerman, I just came here to talk about grades, but if you want to spill then go right ahead.”

Everything in Mikasa’s mind goes silent. She finds herself craning her head to look out the window. She briefly considers dragging herself over to it, propping it open, and just _launching_ herself out of it.

“I think we had better talk about your grades.”

“Not mine.” Ymir shrugs. “Historia’s. But I actually think I can figure out how to get her into the top ten on my own. I’m _much_ more interested in _your_ little dilemma.”

“There really is no dilemma to speak of.”

“Sure didn’t sound like it.” Ymir starts picking something out of her teeth. Mikasa tries not to look as repulsed as she feels. “Apparently you and Annie have something going on?”

“I already said we do _not_.” Mikasa caves and sits down on her bed. Typically, Ymir would be the last person she would speak to, but she happens to be here, she happens to be listening, and she happens to be one of the precious few who haven’t been greatly misinformed. “People just seem to think we do. Krista came to me last week asking me for sex advice because _she thought Annie and I were dating_.”

Ymir suddenly bursts out into howling laughter, nearly falling off of Sasha’s bed in the process. “Oh my god! No way!” She wipes at her eyes and tries to calm down, but she looks up at Mikasa (who is _clearly_ not amused) and goes off into another fit.

“Are you quite finished.” Mikasa deadpans.

Ymir nods unconvincingly, still snorting and biting her lips and shaking and _clearly laughing_. But eventually she does manage to contain herself with a clearly half-assed apology.

“As I was saying. A few boys in our class seem to be under the same impression and asked me for advice as well.”

“Reiner and Bertholdt? Yeah, Historia told me.” Ymir is at least making the effort to be serious, but Mikasa can tell that she is just inches from losing it again. How Krista puts up with this girl is beyond Mikasa’s ability to comprehend. Maybe Krista really is an angel.

“They’re so close with Annie. One would think they would know better.”

Ymir chews on her lip. “You know, this may all be my fault.” She doesn’t look at all sorry about it either. “Because I told Historia-,” She sucks her lips between her teeth.

“Told her what, exactly?” Mikasa tries not to sound like she’s about to strangle Ymir. She likes to think she succeeds.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just- she’s sort of gullible, you know? I say this, of course, with _nothing_ but love in my heart. Don’t tell her I said she was gullible. Everyone thinks she’s so sweet and innocent, but she really won’t let you tease her without getting you back for it.”

“Ymir. What did you do.”

Ymir eases up off of Sasha’s bed. If she thinks Mikasa doesn’t notice her edging towards the door, she is _dead wrong_.

“Look, if I tell you this, people other than you might actually murder me before you get to me.”

“Ymir.” Mikasa eases out of her chair and tries to move towards Ymir without exuding too much malicious intent.

“I was just kidding around! I wasn’t going to say a thing! But Historia has a way of getting information out of me and-,”

“What did you tell Krista.”

Ymir’s hand finds the doorknob before Mikasa can get close enough to do anything about it. She throws the door open and takes off down the hall.

“Ymir!” Mikasa rushes out after her, dodging around the other innocent students milling about innocently.

She hopes, for the cleaning staff’s sake, that Ymir manages to get away.


	4. Some Time With Her Boys Might Do Her Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why do doors even lock automatically. Who thought this was a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know where I'm going with this, but I'm still figuring out how to get there. Thanks for sticking with me, guys.

One long and arduous chase around the entire campus later, Ymir has managed to escape and, even better, in her haste to catch her Mikasa hadn’t grabbed her keys before leaving the room. She stands before it now, hardly believing how terrible a turn her night has taken. She briefly considers breaking her door down; it isn’t as if she could get in any other way. Sasha has lost their key enough times that the office has run out of spares for them; Mikasa heading down now would only result in a pricey lock change. As for Sasha herself, who knows where she is. It’s a Friday night and the girl is always looking for something to do.

This is all Ymir’s fault- coming in and baiting her and then taking off. It really is lucky she got away because Mikasa is feeling murderous.

In the next few moments of standing in front of the door and contemplating destroying it, Mikasa starts to cool down. She turns away from her door and makes her way down the hall. She’ll just go knock on Eren’s and Armin’s door. They’ll let her spend some time in their room.

She reaches into her pocket to text Sasha asking when she’ll be back, only to remember that her phone is sitting on her desk.

When she knocks, Eren opens his door with thinly veiled surprise. “Mikasa? It’s a bit late for you to be out.”

It’s only ten pm, but she knows what he means. Typically she holes herself up in her room and never leaves. “I locked myself out of my room.”

He tries hard to fight it, and for that she has to give him some credit, but that doesn’t change the fact that he ends up laughing himself to tears. This makes the second time in one night and Mikasa really doesn’t appreciate it.

“What happened?” Armin asks, pushing Eren aside so that Mikasa has a clear path of entry.

And she doesn’t really want to talk about it, because she hasn’t told them about any of this mess yet, and maybe she’s becoming more and more confused about it, but Armin shuts the door and Eren is looking at her expectantly. He’s stopped laughing and he even looks a little apologetic in his own way.

“Ymir happened.” She tersely, testing to see if they’ll leave it at that.

That’s all it takes to get Eren fired up, though, and she resigns herself to the knowledge that they will _not_ , in fact, be leaving it at that. “What do you mean, Ymir happened?”

As simply as she can, she tells them what has been going on. Armin is perched on his bed, eyes wide like an owl’s, and he listens intently, but Eren paces around the room and fiddles with things, though Mikasa knows he is still listening too.

“…and that’s about it.” She finishes up.

Armin is frowning, but Eren is giggling again.

“Man, Mikasa.” He says, sitting down next to her, “It’s weird to see you in a situation like this. Is _that_ why you tried to get me to date you?”

“Have you talked to Annie about this at all?” Armin asks.

The name sends a jolt to her chest as she recalls her words. “Yeah. She thinks it’s stupid.”

“Well, it kind of is.” Eren agrees. “I mean, you two hardly talk at all.”

“I know.” It comes out more snappish than Mikasa intends it to. Armin frowns in what might possibly be sympathy, probably for Eren’s wounded pride.

Eren gives her a sour look. “You know, if you’re gonna be like that we can toss you out.”

“Only if I let you.”

Eren huffs and crosses his arms. “Well, whatever. Hang out in here for a while, I don’t care, but Armin and I need to get back to work. We were doing important stuff.”

“We were killing zombies.” Armin gestures to the muted TV hung up in the corner of their room, where a pause menu is superimposed over a decomposing face. “Eren keeps dying and turning into one of them, though.”

“Like you’re any better! You spend all of your time cowering and screaming and button mashing!”

“It’s kept me alive so far.” Armin laughs. Eren throws a pillow at him. Armin throws it back. Eren deflects it right into Mikasa. She catches it and throws it back at him a little harder than necessary.

As a result, Eren’s character dies for the last time; “Game Over” appears in big red letters on his half of the screen.

“You messed me up!” He complains. “Ugh, whatever. Armin, finish the round.” He grabs his keys. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to the bathroom.”

“So,” Armin says as soon as the door is shut, “Mikasa. What do _you_ think about dating Annie?”

Mikasa narrows her eyes at him suspiciously. His eyes are trained on the character he is controlling, and he’s too relaxed. He’s obviously trying very hard to appear as if he has no ulterior motive. She’ll never understand how he can make himself seem so at ease when he’s digging for information, but on any other occasion he’s an obvious nervous wreck.

“Why are you asking?” She says over the sound of him frantically clicking buttons on his remote.

“I’m just curious.” He says, and again he sounds incredibly casual- far too casual (especially considering he is playing a game). She would think he would know better than to try and wheedle anything out of her with an ulterior motive; she’s known him for too long, she knows his ticks. She knows how his questions are always halting and uncertain as if he isn’t sure he should be asking, whether he is raising his hand in class or inquiring about someone’s day. She knows he never sounds so at ease; that’s just how he is.

“I’d say I agree with her.” Mikasa finally says. “It’s stupid.”

Armin glances at her, one eyebrow cocked as if to say, _yeah, right_. She doesn’t know _where_ that came from.

“It is!” She insists. “Eren says so too.”

“I heard what Eren said.” Armin returns his full focus to the game, taking only a moment to mash some buttons with a panicked squeak before saying, “I also heard how you responded.” His character dies and he sets the remote aside, shifting in his bed to face Mikasa fully. “You sure did react pretty quickly.”

“Because I’ve heard it a thousand times by now.” She tugs at her scarf self-consciously, then immediately forces herself to stop.

“Oh…? Who else have you been talking to about this?” He’s back to his normal mannerisms, his typical hesitancy and genuine curiosity.

“…Nobody.” She exhales through her nose and glances at the door. “But I _know_ it doesn’t make sense, so I don’t need Eren spouting it off at me too.”

That sympathetic look is back. “Mikasa, _do_ you like Annie?”

“No! That’s ridiculous, of course not.” The answer flies off of her tongue before she can completely register his question, which does nothing but replace his sympathetic expression with an incredulous one. “I never even thought about her, or this sort of thing, until now.” She adds, and Armin nods.

“But what do you really think about it?”

“What kind of relationship would we even have?” Mikasa retorts, and she might be dodging the question but at least Armin won’t call her on it like Eren might. “We’re both such solitary people. We’d just, what? Sit there, and be solitary, together?” She shakes her head.

“You’re friends with Eren and I.”

“That’s different. I grew up with you two. I can talk to you two.” Mikasa starts picking at Eren’s favorite blanket. It’s looking a little worn; she’ll have to mend it again soon.

“The important thing is that you have a relationship with us. You can have one with Annie, too. You’re capable of it. You just have to find your own sort of rhythm. Talking isn’t the only way to communicate.” Armin shrugs.

His shrugs are always a faint gesture, only half a response with little meaning. It isn’t like Eren’s shrugs, which are usually one-shouldered and moody, or Ymir’s, which tend to consist of her throwing up her entire arms with a damned-if-I-care sort of smirk. Even Annie’s shrugs say volumes- an up-down motion of her shoulders, even with her fists in her pockets, with her face always blank and stoic- somehow her body language just seems to tell whoever is paying attention everything that they need to know.

She thinks she understands then, if just a little bit, what Armin means. “You’re working off the assumption that she’d be open to this in the first place. Which she isn’t. She said so herself.”

“Maybe.” He agrees and leaves it at that.

A few moments later, Eren comes back and informs Mikasa that he ran into her roommate. “She was heading back to your room, so you can go now.”

Armin throws another pillow at him.

“What? She can come back. Just, if she wants her phone or something.”

Mikasa stands up and tugs at her scarf to make sure it’s still there. “I’m going to bed, guys, but thanks. Good night.”


	5. Good Thing It's A Slow Day Or Mikasa Would Crash Into Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa should probably pay attention in class. Annie's bun isn't THAT interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I know negative two things about wrestling. A quick google search told me that the typical high school wrestling is sometimes referred to as folkstyle wrestling. You learn things sometimes.
> 
> Also tomorrow is Valentine's Day. And that's weird. Happy early Valentine's Day, to anybody who might be reading this. Especially if you're reading this on Valentine's Day. If not, please disregard this. Also if you do not celebrate Valentine's Day, please also disregard this. It is three in the morning right now. I have class at nine. What am I doing with my life.  
> (answer: I'm writing shitty fanfiction that's what I'm doing)
> 
> Quick question, for science- would anybody be interested in a chapter/short companion piece from Annie's pov?

As usual, Mikasa wakes up to Sasha’s boisterous morning routine. She takes a moment to enjoy the warmth of her bed and the remnants of her sleep before forcing herself up as well.

Sasha is dancing and singing, music blaring loudly from her headphones and Mikasa can’t help but wonder how the girl isn’t deaf yet. Sasha chimes out a greeting to her as she sashays over to her closet.

Mikasa offers just the slightest nod in return before turning away. Almost immediately, the sound of Sasha’s feet tapping out a rhythm on the floor cease. In the following beat, her music cuts off. “Mikasa, you okay?”

She spares her a glance as she reaches for her hairbrush. She doesn’t reply until she has already pulled it through her hair one, two, three times. “Yes. Why?”

“You just seem kind of…” Sasha shrugs and pulls her nightshirt off. Considering that (and a pair of boyshorts) is the only thing she sleeps in, Mikasa politely diverts her eyes.

“I’ve hardly even been awake for two minutes.”

“Yeah, but, over the past few days.” Sasha amends. “This entire weekend, you stayed in the room and didn’t do anything.”

“That’s a normal weekend for me, Sasha.”

“Yeah, but this time you just seemed… I don’t know.” Sasha lets out an exasperated sigh. Mikasa looks over at her again, figuring she has at least pulled on a bra by now (she has, and is currently browsing her shirts). “Is something bothering you?”

Mikasa thinks back, briefly, to the incident with Ymir and whatever it is she isn’t telling her; how Armin’s behavior during their conversation just doesn’t sit right with her; and how that simple, innocent question he had posed keeps bouncing around in her head.

Does she like Annie? Of course not, Mikasa would have firmly said two or so weeks ago. But now?

She is less and less sure by the day and she has spent more and more time thinking about it than she would like to admit.

Annie is pretty, Mikasa supposes. Plus she’s tiny, which is admittedly sort of cute- or it would be, if Mikasa hadn’t seen for herself the countless times Annie has taken Reiner- who is _several_ weight classes above her- down with no mercy.

Mikasa is a few weight classes above Annie herself, but that hardly seems to matter to the blonde. She’s so tiny, anyways, that she’s the only one on either the women’s or men’s team in her weight class, so she gets in a lot of practice with heavier opponents. Her size certainly does little to stop her. Mikasa has come away from several practices with tender bones and purpled skin on Annie’s account. She’s proud to say she’s returned the favor on just as many occasions.

Bruises or no, wrestling with Annie has always been a satisfying experience. She always gives it her all; she’s the only person Mikasa doesn’t really need to- or, more accurately, can’t _afford_ \- hold back against. Ymir hardly puts in any effort and the boys (except for Eren) have the mindset that, on the rare days they practice with the girls, they should go easy on them.

Part of her can’t wait for the wrestling season to start up again, but the other part of her is dreading it. She highly doubts that rolling around on the floor trying to pin her down will help any of her confusion.

Something hits Mikasa’s forehead. She shakes herself and stares down at the wad of paper laying at her feet.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine,” Sasha says, “But if you keep standing there and staring at the wall, we’re going to miss breakfast and you _know_ that is not okay.”

“Right. Sorry.”

She finishes getting ready and trails after Sasha, still lost in her thoughts.

The entire day crawls by slowly. Mikasa manages to distract herself, for the most part. It is easy for her to push her thoughts aside and focus on her schoolwork instead, except for when it comes to her third period class. It is one of the few classes she shares with Annie, and she finds herself staring at her messy blonde bun from four rows back and two seats to the left the entire time.

She doesn’t hear the lunch bell when it rings; Armin has to tap her shoulder to catch her attention.

“You doing alright?” Eren asks as they walk to the cafeteria. “You seem sort of spacey.”

“I’m fine.”

When they get their food and reach their usual table, Jean zeroes in on them immediately. “Hey, guys!” He grins. “Do you have any plans for next weekend?”

“Uh, I don’t think so.” Armin answers. “Why?”

“Well, my dad agreed to let me use the lake house to throw a party. You guys want to come?” He smiles, in particular, at Mikasa.

“Who’d want to go to one of your dumb parties?” Eren stretches out on the table, pushing his tray of fresh unidentifiable lunch food to the side.

“Shut up, Jaeger, who’s asking you? I only invited you because Armin and Mikasa like you for whatever reason.”

“What’s the occasion?” Armin pokes his food with his fork. It’s obvious he is only feigning interest to make up for Eren’s abrasiveness, but Jean buys it with little concern.

“My birthday is coming up. If you guys want to come, I can give you a ride, or Reiner or Ymir can.” Jean says. “It’ll be fun!”

Armin’s interest is suddenly very genuine. "Wait, who did you say would be going?"

“Uh…” Jean shrugs. “Connie and Sasha have already agreed, and obviously Marco is showing up.” Marco offers a closed-mouth grin around his food and nods enthusiastically. “Ymir, Krista, Reiner… He said he might be able to talk Bertholdt and Annie into coming along. Mina, Hannah, Franz…” He trails off. “That’s everyone I’ve talked to so far. And if you’re worried about what we’ll be doing, it won’t be anything crazy. I like going to school here and don’t want to get kicked out. It’d just be hanging out, watching movies. We have a fire pit and, obviously, there’s the lake.” Something catches his attention from across the cafeteria. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go ask Thomas if he wants to come, too.” He gets up to leave. Marco trails after him to put his tray away.

“You know, it could be fun.” Armin says, turning to Eren. “What do you think, Eren?”

“As if! The only reason I sit at this table is because you guys do. Jean is a dick.” Eren pulls his tray towards him and starts shoveling food into his mouth as if that is the end-all, be-all.

Armin turns pleading eyes to Mikasa, but immediately refocuses his attention on Eren. “Please, Eren? I don’t want to go alone…”

“Ask Mikasa to go with you!”

“You and I both know she’ll only go to make sure you don’t pick any fights.”

Eren makes a disinterested noise through a mouthful of instant mashed potatoes.

“If it means that much to you, Armin, I’ll go with you.” Mikasa sighs.

He looks delighted, which strikes her as odd. He’s painfully shy; the prospect of social gatherings like this typically immobilize him with fear. “You won’t regret it, Mikasa. Really!”

She shrugs and goes back to poking at the pile of previously frozen (now slightly thawed) carrots on her tray. She tries to focus on them, and not the very slight possibility that maybe Annie will be there too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, nothing particularly interesting happens in this chapter. It's just more Mikasa being dull and a few other people dancing around.  
> I thought about making this chapter longer and actually including Jean's birthday celebration in it, but I didn't and for that I apologize. Writing is not exactly my forte and this is why I typically stick to one-shots and that is also why these chapters are short and painfully slow. Again I apologize. Have a cookie. And thank you for all the kudos/bookmarks/taking the time to sit down and read this.


	6. What's a Road Trip Without a Few Bumps, Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting from point A to point B is a lot harder than it sounds, apparently. Just ask Jean. Poor Jean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One day. One day I will post a chapter at normal-people hours instead of three in the morning on a school night. For now, here is yet another installation issued at not-normal-people hours. Please go forth with my love and affection.

As they load up into Jean’s classy-but-efficient BMW, overnight bags in tow, Jean says, “I haven’t actually driven to the lake house from the school before.” He smiles at Mikasa. “A navigator would be pretty helpful. You’re good with directions, right?”

Before she can answer, Marco chirps, “I’ll be glad to help!”

Eren snorts. “Don’t get us lost, horse-face.”

Jean’s smile drops. “Whatever, just get in the car.”

They get lost. Really lost. Mikasa isn’t even sure how Marco could have directed them so poorly even if he’d been holding the map upside down (which, he isn’t even holding a map, it’s his phone’s GPS).

Eren hoots and howls and makes fun of Jean for a little while, but eventually he gets increasingly annoyed with the roundabout driving and lack of getting any closer to their destination.

Jean looks about ready to strangle something. He pulls over at a gas station so that the others can sort out the directions while he refills the car.

“Turn left at the next intersection.” Armin suggests after a brief glance at the map, when Jean climbs back in. “Go straight for a while and see where that takes us.”

“Thanks.” Jean grumbles.

Ten minutes after Armin’s instructions have been precisely followed, Jean’s phone starts ringing. Marco dutifully picks it up for him. “Krista, hey! What’s- oh. What?” He makes a few sympathetic noises in the back of his throat and nods, utters a lot of, _‘oh, I see’_ s and ‘ _that’s horrible’_ s.

“What?” Eren asks, leaning forward, and Mikasa tunes in to pay attention too. Jean grumpily keeps driving.

“It seems Ymir’s van has broken down.” Marco informs them. “Apparently it happens often, as Ymir is already-,” He puts the phone back to his ear and listens for a moment, his face slowly growing paler. “Er, whacking it with a wrench and busting out the rubber bands? Apparently.”

Jean sighs heavily.

“Hey, you know,” Armin says, “Doesn’t it sort of look a little cloudy out? I hope it doesn’t-,” Thunder cracks overhead. “…rain.”

Mikasa elbows Eren before he can inform Jean how terribly his birthday is already going, because it definitely looks like he’s about to.

Eren looks at her like she has just stabbed him in the back. All she says in response is, “Put your seatbelt on.”

“I swear to god,” Jean says as he flips on the windshield wipers, “If _one more thing_ happens to keep us from getting to that god damned lake house, I will commit _murder_.”

Thirty more minutes pass, and the rain only comes down harder.

The overall mood in the car is pretty subdued. Marco is trying to make pleasant conversation from the passenger seat, but Armin is really the only one willing to play along. Eren is slouched grumpily between Armin and Mikasa, arms crossed and feet up on Jean’s console. Jean had tried to swat them down at first, but now he’s just clutching the steering wheel and staring out the windshield, grumbling about the weather. Despite the fact that the heater is on full blast, the chill from the storm seems to creep its way into the car. Mikasa pulls at her scarf, hoping to keep her face warm.

She looks out the window and observes what she can through the torrential rain. She can _just_ make out thinly spaced trees swaying in the wind on the other side of the road. The sky is a murky gray color. She can understand why Jean is upset. This sort of weather is hardly ideal for a party at a lake house.

“We should just go back.” Eren grumbles under his breath. “This sucks. I don’t want to be here. Why did you make me come?”

Mikasa ignores him, because that is exactly what did not happen. He decided to come of his own volition when he realized that he would be staying at the school basically alone otherwise.

“If you want, Jaeger, I can just drop you off on the side of the road.” Jean threatens. Mikasa isn’t entirely sure that he’s kidding. He’s frustrated enough, by this point, that she wouldn’t put it past him.

“I’m sure the weather will clear up soon.” Marco says optimistically. “I think the rain is letting up a little, see?” His sentence is punctuated with a startlingly close lightning strike. Thunder booms overhead loud enough to leave Mikasa’s ears ringing. Not even a second later, there is an earsplitting crack as a tree by the side of the road splinters apart. The car swerves across the other lane to avoid the smoking chunk of wood that tumbles into the road. They skid right into a ditch, and Mikasa has to grab Eren to keep him from flying out the windshield because of _course_ he isn’t wearing a god damn seat belt.

Jean stares out the windshield, takes in a deep breath, and lets out a long, high-pitched noise not unlike that of a deflating balloon. While he does that, Marco turns around. He seems perfectly fine, except for the blood gushing out of his right nostril. “Everyone okay?” He asks in a shaking voice.

Mikasa nods. She turns to scan Eren and Armin quickly while they answer in the affirmative.

Headlights flash in the window as a car pulls up next to them. A moment later, Reiner and Bertholdt leap out of their car and run towards them through the rain. Reiner pulls open the first door he reaches (Mikasa’s) and leans in. “Is everyone alright?! That tree nearly hit you!”

“We’re fine.” Marco smiles reassuringly, even as his right eye starts to swell. “Right, Jean?”

Jean has stopped screaming and is just resting his forehead on the steering wheel now. He makes a noncommittal groaning noise.

“Nice driving, jackass.” Eren kicks at his seat. “You nearly got me killed!”

“You should have been wearing a seatbelt.” Armin points out. “If Mikasa didn’t have such good reflexes, you’d probably be…” He trails off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Eren snaps his teeth shut and slouches back into his seat.

“Whatever.” Jean says, shooting upright. He sounds deceptively cheery, like not a single thing has gone wrong at all. “It was nothing big, we’re all fine.” The car is still running. Jean throws it into reverse and tries to back out of the ditch. The wheels spin uselessly in the mud. He smiles in a way that doesn’t reach his eyes; he looks a little insane. “See? All _fine_.”

“Here, Bert and I will help push you out.” Reiner says carefully. “Mind giving us a hand, Marco?”

Mikasa gets out of the car, too, more to walk off the adrenaline than anything else. She’s soaked within seconds, and for a moment she regrets not taking off her scarf before getting out, but it’s too late for that now.

She heads towards Reiner’s sleek sports car. He’s pretty down to earth, but he probably takes more pride in his car than anything else. Even so, in his haste to make sure they were okay, he left the doors wide open. Mikasa steps over to close one before too much rain can ruin the upholstery.

She spots Annie as she does so and nearly has a heart attack all over again. She had seriously thought Reiner’s car was only big enough for two people, and on top of that she is pretty sure that Jean mentioned Annie wasn’t planning on coming after all.

Annie looks at her for a moment before sliding out of car. She opens an umbrella, shuts the door, and circles around to Mikasa. They stand next to each other a little awkwardly, and after a moment Annie offers the umbrella to Mikasa. She accepts it, despite the fact that she’s already drenched.

“You alright?” Annie asks. She starts to lean against the car before thinking better of it. Mikasa follows her lead, even though leaning against the car won’t make her clothes much wetter or colder.

“I’m alright.” Mikasa confirms. She’s shaken, but she’ll get over it. Jean’s right; it really was no big deal. Well, except for Eren nearly taking flight through the windshield, but…

An old, beat-up van chugs up alongside them. The side door slides open and Krista hops out with her own umbrella. “What happened?” She asks, eyes darting between them and Jean’s car (still stuck in the mud).

Mikasa and Annie both silently point to the charred remains of the tree in the road.

Krista clicks her tongue. “You’re all okay?”

“Yes.”

She scans them for a moment. “I’ll leave you two alone.” She heads over to Jean’s car.

“She thinks we’re dating, right?” Annie asks after a moment.

“For whatever reason.” Mikasa agrees.

“Hm.” It sounds like she’s agreeing, but she isn’t even looking at Mikasa. She’s watching as the boys try to push Jean’s car back onto the road. Eren has joined the effort now. Krista is standing by, cheering them on.

Mikasa thinks about asking Annie about Reiner and Bertholdt, if she even knows they, too, think they are a couple. She almost does, too, but something blocks her throat and she ends up holding her tongue. She and Annie watch the boys try to dislodge Jean’s car in silence.

Eventually, Ymir drives over and, by tying Jean’s bumper to hers using bed sheets she apparently just keeps in her car, they are able to _finally_ get the car back on the road.

Mikasa wordlessly gives Annie her umbrella back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: probably a very awkwardly written chunk of words depicting the events of a rained-in lake house party in which things probably happen.


	7. A New Challenger Has Appeared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa and Bertholdt bond. Nobody understands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it isn't three in the morning this time. I'm working my way up.  
> On a slightly related note, two days in a row. Not bad.
> 
> EDIT: I have gone in to edit this damn thing like four times so if you notice any typos please let me know. Nothing drives me crazier than typos, especially if it's in my own work.

Mikasa is pretty sure she sees tears in Jean’s eyes as he pulls into a long, gravelly driveway. She is just as ready as the rest of them to get inside. Despite her best efforts, and Jean turning up the heat as high as it will go, Mikasa has been shivering the entire way up. It’s her own fault; she should have thought about that before getting out of the car.

Armin had dug a spare jacket out of his bag to offer to her, but she declined and made Eren put it on instead. A small part of her regrets the decision, but she’d much rather Eren be warm and comfortable. If he gets sick, he’ll get behind on his schoolwork, and anyways if he weren’t comfortable he’d have complained even more than before.

The rain is still coming down, but it’s lighter now. The walk from the car to the house only leaves her mildly soaked.

“Here,” Jean says, taking Mikasa gently by the arm. “The bathroom is this way. I’ll put your wet clothes in the wash.”

Marco, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Eren follow. Marco keeps sneezing blood and Bertholdt looks like a miserable six-foot-tall puppy.

Mikasa starts to change, hardly noticing the boys, but Jean lets out an offended squawk. “Hey!” He says. “How about we let Mikasa change alone, huh?”

“She’s my sister.” Eren deadpans, already stripping down too. “And anyways, you’re the one perving on her all the time.”

Jean opens his mouth to respond, grows very red, and does a sort of shuffling 180 out of the bathroom. A moment later he strides back in, scoops up the wet clothes that have been tossed on the ground, shoves them into the washing machine pressed up against the wall, and disappears once more.

“Don’t mind him.” Marco says, wiping blood away from his nose with some toilet paper. “Once the party starts and he forgets about the drive, he’ll loosen up a ton.”

Reiner’s stomach grumbles loudly. “Have we ordered the pizza yet?” He asks, rubbing a hand to placate the whining organ.

“No, don’t think so.” Bertholdt responds. “We only just got- Reiner, what are you-?!”

His words fall on deaf ears as Reiner vanishes from the room wearing nothing but a fresh pair of boxers and socks.

 From the other room, they hear a loud screech that tells them all they need to know about how it feels to be barreled over by two-hundred plus pounds of mostly naked muscle.

Eren throws on a shirt and runs out so he can watch Jean writhe on the floor in agony (he’s been body-slammed by Reiner enough to know how it feels) and Marco follows to make sure his best friend is still in one piece.

Bertholdt rubs a hand over his face, heaves a long-suffering sigh, and goes back to meticulously buttoning his shirt.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with him.” Bertholdt says after a moment.

Mikasa hums and keeps her eyes fixed on the washing machine as their clothes tumble end over end inside of it. She is hoping he won’t try to bond with her over daily struggles with ridiculous boyfriends and alleged girlfriends. She would very much like to not think about that tonight. She has a wealth of patience- she grew up with Eren, after all- but it’s starting to wear thin.

“I want to thank you, by the way.” Bertholdt says, his hands pausing in closing his shirt before falling completely to his sides. “Speaking to Levi about our situation was… _surprisingly_ helpful, if not completely humiliating. Things are still touch and go at home, but he’s going to have a conference with Reiner’s parents and, well… We’ll see how things go from there.”

She really is a little bit relieved to hear that, if only because it means she isn’t responsible for ruining their lives or something.

“I also wanted to apologize.”

Mikasa glances at him, an eyebrow raised.

“About the misunderstanding.” He says. A moment later he adds, “The one with Annie.”

“Did she talk to you?” Mikasa asks.

“No.” Bertholdt says. “It was just really obvious. The moment Reiner mentioned the coming out thing, you just kind of…” He shrugs. His lips tighten and his voice sounds a little strained; it takes Mikasa a moment to realize he is fighting back laughter.

That _fucker_.

“Anyways.” He lets out a deep breath. “I’m sorry about that. I would have done something, but Reiner was so nervous… I didn’t want to give him one more thing to freak out about.”

“I understand.” Mikasa turns back to the washing machine. “Wait…” She turns back around to look at him. “No, I don’t understand. Shouldn’t you two, of all people, know about Annie’s love life?”

“Uh, well!” Bertholdt’s cheeks go very red. “We just figured- because, well, Annie- she- I mean. We just-,” A sheen of sweat covers his brow, and Mikasa considers redacting her question just to prevent what she is sure to be an impending panic attack.

But then Bertholdt swallows and sighs, embarrassed. “Let me start over. Annie’s pretty solitary. She doesn’t like it when people try to get stuff out of her; so, when Krista told us you two were together, we figured Annie would tell us in her own time.” He rubs the back of his neck and forces a smile. “We probably look pretty foolish about now, huh?”

Mikasa shrugs. The washing machine shuts off, and Bertholdt leans down to change the clothes over.

“You know,” Bertholdt says after a moment, “You don’t have to wait in here.”

“Neither do you.”

“I like it in here.” He responds. “People make me nervous.”

“So you’re just going to hide in here?” It’s more of a statement than anything else; she isn’t trying to accuse him of anything, but his ears go red and he looks away.

“Just for a little bit, once I’ve worked myself up to it. Reiner and Annie being here helps. What are you waiting for?”

“My scarf.”

“Oh.” Bertholdt trains his eyes on the dryer. “Tell you what. You go out and see what’s going on out there. I haven’t heard anyone scream in a while. When the clothes are done drying, I’ll bring you your scarf and join the fun. How’s that?”

Mikasa shrugs. She doesn’t particularly care what Bertholdt does, but she _is_ concerned over whether or not Eren is behaving and she _might_ be a little curious as to what Annie is up to. “That’s fine by me.”

“Alright, great. But you might want to finish getting dressed first.”

With a start, Mikasa realizes that she’s just been casually talking to Bertholdt in her underwear. She reaches up to her face, hoping to hide her embarrassment with her scarf, but- well. “Yes.” She says finally. “That _may_ be a good idea.”

Bertholdt smiles at her, and Mikasa tilts the corner of her mouth up in return.

Connie bursts in then, wearing a bra stuffed with tissues over his shirt. “Come on, guys! You’re missing all the fun! We-,” he stops and looks at them, brow furrowed. “Wait… What were you two doing in here?”

Mikasa frowns at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Connie points at Bertholdt’s shirt, which is still only halfway buttoned, then gestures at Mikasa’s state of undress. “Were you two… _you know_.”

“What?!” Bertholdt squeaks, sweat beginning to form on his brow. “N-no! Of course we weren’t!”

Connie’s face lights up like he’s just remembered that Christmas is a yearly event (he has forgotten before; Mikasa wouldn’t put it past him to forget it again). “Oh my _god_! You _were_! Guys!” He hollers, turning around and running out of the bathroom. Mikasa cringes as he announces to the lake house at large, “MIKASA AND BERTHOLDT WERE GETTING IT ON!”

“WHAT?!” Comes the predictable response, and she is almost impressed that Jean has managed to hit such a high note (or would be, if she weren’t busy trying to decide if she is angry, mortified, or absolutely _flabbergasted_ by Connie’s lack of cognitive skills and general common sense). She hears Reiner howling with laughter, and a stampede of footsteps thundering towards them.

“I hope she doesn’t kill me.” Bertholdt quietly prays.

Connie reappears in the door, beaming and gesturing wildly. Sasha is right behind him. “Mikasa!” She screams. “I didn’t even know you _had those urges_! I am so proud of you!” She reaches out to pull Mikasa into a hug, but thinks better of it when she notices Mikasa is still basically naked. “Put some clothes on!” She scolds.

Reiner staggers in next. He steps around Sasha and Mikasa until he is standing next to Bertholdt. He looks at him for a few moments, teary-eyed and breathless, and pats Bertholdt on the shoulder a few times. “Didn’t know you had it in you.” He chokes out through barely suppressed laughter. “I’m so-,” he giggles, “-so proud of you.”

“Wait,” Bertholdt mumbles, “Reiner, don’t encourage them please.”

“Hold on, though.” Ymir teases, practically shoving Sasha out of the way. “I thought you only wrestled with Annie?” She winks and starts cackling like she has just told the most  _brilliant_ joke to ever be told.

“You really aren’t funny, Ymir.” Mikasa informs her over Connie’s splutters of confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter sort of wrote itself. The story has gained sentience. I no longer have control. I fear soon it will come for me. I am currently taking refuge under my bed. Send help immediately.


	8. Party Cliches, Anyone?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Better watch out. These kids might start a riot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another chapter posted at way too late in the night (early in the morning...?)  
> At least I don't have classes tomorrow. That's nice.  
> In other news, I have been sucked into Twitch Plays Pokemon. There's just something really fascinating about watching over 80000 people try to coordinate and control a single character. How will they ever get through the Safari Zone. Jesus.  
> I don't know why I'm talking about it here. This has nothing to do with Attack on Titan or bland and boring fanfiction where nothing interesting ever seems to happen and events only happen a little bit at a time. I'm so tired. Why aren't I sleeping.

Eren has been positioning himself firmly between Mikasa and Bertholdt for the past hour. Blood had nearly been shed when the pizza arrived and Bertholdt almost took a seat next to Mikasa. The situation was diffused by Annie, who kicked Eren in the shin and dragged his chair between Bertholdt and Mikasa while he writhed on the ground in pain. Now she is sitting next to Mikasa; Eren is on her other side, biting violently into his pizza and shooting dirty looks at Bertholdt whenever they make eye contact.

Mikasa feels a little bad for him; Eren has a pretty intense glare and Bertholdt has a pretty weak stomach. She elbows Eren in the ribs. He sucks in a breath of pain and pizza, then proceeds to spend the next few minutes coughing and wheezing.

Annie makes a noise under her breath that probably is not laughter.

“I wish this rain would stop.” Jean complains. “The whole point of coming out here was to hang out on the lake.”

“I’m sure it’ll let up eventually.” Marco says, ever the optimist.

“We could play some party games while we wait.” Connie suggests through a mouthful of pizza.

“Like what, Truth or Dare?” Jean scoffs. “What is this, middle school?”

Despite his obvious disdain, the mere mention of the game sends Sasha flying upwards to her feet. “Let’s do it!”

“Come on. That game only ever ends up being ‘Hey, who do you like?’ or ‘Perform this weird and awkward sexual act.’ That’s not fun, it’s annoying.”

“Yeah, but we already know who you like, Jean,” Connie points out.

“And _nobody_ wants to see you performing any sort of sexual act.” Eren adds.

Reiner’s booming laughter fills the room. “I think it’s a great idea, as long as we all promise not to get too cliché with it. Questions like, ‘who are you crushing on’ are strictly off-limits!”

“I still say no. My birthday, my rules.”

Ymir peels a piece of pepperoni off of Krista’s pizza and flicks it at Jean. It hits him squarely in the forehead, resulting in an outraged squawk. “Would you rather sit here and sulk about the rain?”

He turns hopefully to Marco, who grins and says, “Let’s play, Jean!”

“You’re dead to me.”

“I’ll go first.” Marco ignores him and points at Connie. “Truth or dare?”

“I’m already wearing one of Sasha’s bras.” Connie leans forward defiantly. “ _Come at me, Marco_.”

Marco waits expectantly for a few moments. The determined gleam in Connie’s eyes wavers. He slowly leans back in his char and crosses his arms.

“What are you waiting for?” He asks.

“You didn’t pick anything…?” Marco responds uncertainly.

“This game is _already_ off to a riveting start.” Jean tilts his chair back.

“Shut up, Jean. I pick dare!”

Mikasa watches as Marco consults with Krista (Jean won’t play along) for a good dare. Marco seems to like whatever she offers, because he splits into a huge smile. “Connie, I dare you to close your eyes and apply some makeup.”

Without missing a beat, Sasha pulls her makeup out of her purse and drops it down next to Connie’s plate. “You’re going to look beautiful by the time this party is over.”

“I hope I wind up in a skirt by the end of this.” He agrees. “While I do this, Armin!”

“Uh, truth.”

“Wimp!” Connie whines. “Alright. You’ve known Eren for a long time. What’s the weirdest thing you two have even done together?”

“Do _not_ answer that question.” Eren orders.

Armin looks torn. His face is slowly turning a very bright red. Mikasa fights the urge to hide her face in her hands. She knows exactly where this is going.

“Well, you see…” Armin hunches his shoulders. “We’ve all known each other since we were really little, so… Mikasa, Eren, and I used to take baths together for a long time and then take naps together afterwards.”

The lipstick Connie is trying to apply ends up somewhere in his ear as he yelps, “How long?!”

“You don’t have to answer that.” Mikasa says very, very slowly.

“Until we were nine or ten. Then Mikasa hit puberty and it got weird.”

“Did you take your naps naked?” Ymir teases.

“Yes.”

Jean falls backwards out of his chair, screaming, and Marco scrambles to help him up. Eren is slamming his fist against his forehead, probably hoping to concuss himself and erase this memory from his mind. Mikasa regrets ever coming to this party.

“W-well, that’s not so strange.” Bertholdt speaks up. “Reiner, Annie, and I did that too. Well, we didn’t nap together naked, but-,”

Annie whips her head around to glare at Bertholdt. He is suitably cowed into silence.

Reiner continues for him, laughing. “I remember that! Annie used to punch Bert in the nipples.”

“We were very, very little.” Annie says firmly. “That stopped around the time we were five.”

“Because Annie kept punching Bert in the nipples and threatened to rip off-,”

“Okay!” Jean claps his hands together. “I really don’t want to hear this!”

“I guess it’s just a childhood-friend type of thing.” Marco chuckles. “Hey, Jean, wanna take a bath together? It’s not too late!”

“You’re even more dead to me.”

“You know what would make this game better?” Ymir asks suddenly.

“Nudity.” Sasha suggests.

“No. Well, obviously, but I’m thinking alcohol.”

“I thought I already established that we wouldn’t be drinking. We could get in trouble at school if they found out.”

“You’re just a big weenie. I’ll go get it.”

“You brought some anyways?!”

“No, I’m going to go buy some.”

“I’ll help!” Krista gets up to follow Ymir outside.

Sasha stands up too.

“Why are you going?” Connie complains. He’s still caking makeup on. He doesn’t seem to know how to stop.

“Because if we leave those two alone, they _probably_ won’t be back for a while.”

“Does that mean this damn game is over, at least?” Jean asks.

“Not a chance! I’m wearing makeup so someone else is going to have to suffer too!” Connie declares.

Mikasa debates leaving with them. Now seems as good a time as any to escape this circle of heathens. She can’t believe Armin told the bath story. Oh god, she _can’t believe he told the bath story_. She’ll never be able to look any of these people in the eye again.

She gets to her feet.

“Are you going with Ymir?” Armin asks.

“Yes.” She can’t look at him. The betrayal is still too fresh.

Ymir is about to pull out of the driveway when Mikasa gets out there. She grins deviously when she sees her, but doesn’t say anything when she gets in the car.

At first, she isn’t sure where to sit due to most of the floor space being taken up by a mattress (which explains where the sheets Ymir used to pull Jean’s car back onto the road came from). “Ymir, is this legal?”

“It’s convenient.”

She thinks it might be better not to press the matter and sits in the back with Sasha.

Ymir doesn’t drive off yet, though. She is staring at the door, ignoring Sasha’s complaints to hurry up.

Annie appears a moment later, holding a wad of cash. “Courtesy of Jean.” She says, climbing in.

Apparently that’s exactly what Ymir was waiting for. She takes the money with absolutely no hesitation. “Score! Jean sure is a sweetie. Must be my charm.”

“As if.” Krista snorts.

“Be nice. I’ll leave you in the rain.”

Annie sits down on the mattress despite the fact that there is an open seat between Sasha and Mikasa.

“Buckle your seatbelts, boys and girls.”

“This is kind of nice. Us girls can have some time to hang out.” Krista smiles over her shoulder at them.

“Mikasa can tell us about her boyfriend.” Sasha adds, nudging her, even though Mikasa is _pretty_ sure they cleared that matter up.

Just to be safe, because Sasha is Sasha, Mikasa says, “Bertholdt and I are not together.”

“I guess it’s better than people thinking you and I are dating.” Annie says without turning around to look at them.

Krista whips around and yelps out a high-pitched, “What?!” that nearly sends Ymir careening into a tree. “You two aren’t dating?! Why didn’t you tell me when I-,” her teeth clack together audibly.

“I… wasn’t sure how.” The sky outside the window sure is interesting- much more interesting than Krista’s face.

Krista’s laugh is quiet and borderline hysterical. She slowly turns back around and doesn’t speak for the rest of the drive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I regret deciding to write a party. I don't know how parties work. I never went to parties in high school. I don't go to parties now. What do you do? What kinds of activities are there, aside from the obligatory Truth or Dare? How does social interaction work? What did I get myself into????  
> I may regret this party more than Mikasa does and Armin told the bath story.  
> Too late now. Maybe I'll be able to get out of this damn party phase in the next chapter or two. Please bear with me. Thanks guys.  
> Also bless Simantov for commenting on like almost every chapter I can always count on you friend. And thanks everyone else too.
> 
> It's four in the morning I'm going to bed now catch you guys later love you.


	9. Every Storm Comes to An End Eventually (Probably)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people aren't party people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this at 5:30 my time, so if there are any grammar/spelling mistakes, please be sure to tell me and I'll fix it at a point in the future where I don't hate myself or my sleeping habits.

The closest liquor store turns out to be twenty minutes away from the lake house, which isn’t far.

Unless the car keeps breaking down.

Mikasa tries not to be bothered by the fact that Ymir is literally fixing whatever the problem is with rubber bands. It isn’t like Ymir has driven them into a ditch yet- so her track record is currently superior to Jean’s. Still, the frequency of her van’s episodes don’t inspire very much confidence.

Maybe she should have stayed at the lake house. She doesn’t care how many times Armin would have told the bath story.

They eventually make it, though. It isn’t the most welcoming spot. There are virtually no other buildings in sight and only two other cars in the parking lot. A sign hangs in the window stating, ‘The next minor to show us a fake ID wins a free ride in a cop car.’

“Be right back, guys. Anybody want anything while I’m in there? It’s on Jean.”

Sasha lists out what sounds like a monthly grocery list and Ymir disappears inside.

“Does Ymir do this often?” Mikasa asks, glancing at the sign again.

“Oh, yeah. She’s usually our go to for getting beer and stuff at parties.” Sasha answers. “That’s why Connie always makes sure to invite her when he gets stuff together. Because, you know, she’s sort of mean.”

Mikasa waits for Krista to come to her defense, but she continues sitting quietly in the passenger seat.

“She’s just a bit blunt. And abrasive. Not much worse than Eren. Of course, something like that is difficult to accomplish.” Mikasa definitely did not expect Annie, of all people, to speak up for Ymir. Actually, Mikasa had thought she’d been sleeping this entire time. She still could be; she’s stretched out on the mattress, arms crossed behind her head and eyes closed.

“Wow.” Sasha nudges her with an elbow. “Normally when people say something about Eren, you take up arms.”

Mikasa doesn’t dignify her with a response, primarily because she doesn’t quite have one.

They are spared from an awkward silence in the form of Ymir’s triumphant return.

“Now the party can start. Is anyone thirsty?”

“Shouldn’t we wait until we’re with the boys?” It’s the first thing Krista has said since finding out about Mikasa and Annie’s lack of relationship, and it comes out icy and sharp. Ymir flinches and loses her smirk.

“You are absolutely right, Historia.” She says, facing forward. “That’s what I love about you, you know? You’re always one hundred percent correct.”

It’s almost like Mikasa can _hear_ the collective rolling of eyes from everyone else in the car.

The drive back to the lake house is incredibly quiet and relatively uneventful. The van doesn’t even break down.

When they finally get up the driveway and through the front door, it becomes apparent that things at the lake house weren’t _nearly_ as subdued as in the car.

There is toilet paper everywhere- on the floor, on the couches, hanging off of the ceiling lamps, _everywhere_. The table has been overturned and Mikasa counts at least two broken lamps. The boys are in a circle next to the table. Mikasa would guess that they are playing a card game, except most of the cards are covered in almost as much makeup as Connie’s face. Reiner is wearing a lampshade. Marco is wearing pool floaties. Eren is wearing almost nothing.

Jean waddles in from the kitchen, a glass of water in hand. He is walking on his knees because, for some reason, his calves are tied together with duct tape.

“What…?” Krista starts to ask.

Jean sees them, looks at them with a straight face, and says very quietly, “I am a mermaid.”

“He lost a bet.” Bertholdt, ever the light of truth and sanity, offers meekly.

“Yeah, we got bored waiting.” Eren says, standing up.

“Put some clothes on, Eren.”

“Make me, Mikasa!”

“Where’s Bowl Cut?” Ymir asks, setting their less-than-legal goods on the coffee table.

“Time out.” Eren answers. He reaches for a can of beer and pops the tab.

“Do I want to know why?”

“He told the bath story. Such betrayal will never be tolerated.”

“You’re still on about that?” Sasha laughs. “Hey, let’s get some music going. What are we doing now?”

“Strip poker.”

“…Is that my makeup all over the cards?”

Connie doesn’t seem at all apologetic. “They wanted to be pretty.”

“Hey, Historia, you want to play strip poker? Sure looks like fun, huh?” Ymir smiles hopefully at the blonde in question.

Krista only offers a haughty grunt in reply.

“Trouble in paradise?” Reiner teases. Ymir flips him off.

Jean has finally managed to get back to his spot in the circle. He smiles at Mikasa. “You want to join?”

“I think I’ll pass.”

Sasha plops down in the empty spot next to him. “I’m totally in! Deal me in already, come on!”

Mikasa figures she’ll leave them to it. With the music and the game and Ymir and Eren arguing over _something_ , it’s louder than Mikasa really likes. She can already feel a dull, throbbing pain beginning to develop in her temples.

She had seen a patio earlier, when she had been drying her clothes. She heads there now. It’s still raining, but she’s pretty sure it has an overhang and she’s always likes watching the rain anyways.

It’s cool outside and the steady thrumming of the rain outside serves to ease her headache. She plops down in a chair and watches the rain come down on the lake. The noise from the party becomes a pleasant background soundtrack and she can fool herself for a moment into thinking she’s on her own.

The illusion is shattered not even a full minute later when the door opens and someone else steps outside.

It’s Annie, of course, with two cans of beer. She offers one to Mikasa.

“No thanks.”

Annie shrugs and sets it down next to her anyways. “Reiner has already finished off three.”

“We _just_ got back.”

“He’s still going strong, too.”

“He’ll regret it in the morning.”

“Not my problem.” She sits down in the other patio chair and pops her can open.

“So what are you doing out here?”

“Same as you, isn’t it? Parties aren’t my thing.” For a moment, Mikasa thinks she might elaborate. Instead she falls silent.

Normally Mikasa doesn’t mind when others are quiet, but with Annie it’s almost a little unsettling. She always has an intensity about her, like she’s some sort of predator poised to leap when nobody is expecting it.

She wonders, for a moment, if that’s how others feel around her sometimes.

“Are Krista and Ymir fighting?” Mikasa asks. “Krista seems upset.”

“Well, Ymir _did_ let her believe we were dating, which ended up with her asking you for sex advice.” Annie raises an eyebrow at her. “Nice job, by the way, in nipping that one in the bud.”

“I was caught off guard.” Mikasa is a bit more defensive than she means to be. “I mean, who in their right minds would think we’re dating, right? It’s ridiculous.” She glances at Annie when she says this, gauging for a reaction.

She’s still looking at the lake, sipping on her beer. After a moment she says, “Yeah, it is.”

“Though… I’m wondering if it really is.” The words tumble out of their own accord, before Mikasa can so much as register them as thoughts. “I mean, your own best friends thought we were dating too.”

 _That_ gets a reaction; Annie whips her head a full ninety degrees and fixes Mikasa with wide, startled eyes. “ _What_?!” A moment later, she composes herself and adds, “You mean Bertholdt and Reiner? I would hardly consider them my best friends.”

“You used to take baths together.” Mikasa points out.

“We grew up together, so what.” Annie rolls her eyes and turns away from Mikasa. “Are you mad at Armin for telling that story?”

She’s changing the subject. Mikasa doesn’t want to let her off the hook so easily, but she can’t think of a way to question Annie about her reaction without sounding too interested. She thinks about what Annie asked her instead. Maybe she can loop back around later.

“I’m not mad at him.” She decides eventually. “He could have talked about many things that are much, much worse. And knowing you did the same thing makes it less mortifying.”

“You should probably tell him that. He was worried.”

Mikasa makes a vague noise of agreement. Of course she’ll talk to him; she knows how sensitive he is. She doesn’t need Annie giving her advice on handling her boys.

“You’re pretty close with Bertholdt and Reiner, right?”

Annie shoots her a look and takes another sip from her can. She lowers it from her lips only enough to mutter, “They’re like two annoying brothers I can’t get rid of.”

Mikasa can’t think of a good, subtle follow-up question. She’s walking a thin line between casual conversation and mild interrogation.

She looks over at Annie again. Her hair is falling out of its bun, and Mikasa suddenly realizes that she’s never seen her hair down. Out of nowhere, she’s overcome with the overwhelming urge to pull at the clip that is barely holding it together and let it tumble over her shoulders. She wants to touch it.

Jean had told Mikasa, once, that her hair was pretty. Mikasa had thought it odd at the time. Her hair was, after all, just a dead thing that grew from her head; just long, thin strands of black, fibrous protein. Looking at Annie, though, she thinks she understands whatever it was that compelled Jean to stop her after class and draw attention to her hair.

It’s strange. Throughout this whole ordeal, Mikasa hasn’t had much interaction with Annie at all, but sitting here, staring at her, it’s hitting her that she is _beautiful_. The hook of her nose, the droop of her eyelids, her tiny, tiny stature. Sunlight glances off of her hair and-

Wait. Sunlight?

Annie notices her staring and stares back for a moment, eyes conveying a level of indifference Mikasa is now realizing she will probably never be able to achieve. “What are you looking at?”

“It’s stopped raining.”

Annie, despite the fact that she has been staring out at the lake and probably actually saw the rain let up, actually looks back to check. “Jean will be happy.” And she stands up to go tell him.

When she disappears into the house, Mikasa huffs out a breath and turns to watch the sunset through the still gray clouds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was this as painful to read as it was to write.


	10. Lake House Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa continues to be surrounded by people of questionable merit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually going to write/post this at 4:30 tomorrow morning, but I was browsing the mikannie tag on tumblr and  
> Oh my god  
> Oh my god Crev you precious shit  
> Linked it on tumblr I'm  
> Omfg thanks like really no seriously thank you I really don't like my writing much but knowing you guys take enjoyment out of this stupid little thing is just. Great. Really. Thank you I mean it.

“Mikasa!” Eren screams, waist-deep in lake water. “Come here, I need you!”

She is still on the porch, quietly observing as usual and having a nice conversation with Krista about things that don’t involve Annie (now that Krista knows the truth). She doesn’t really want to leave Krista to answer Eren, but Krista makes the decision for her when she goes inside to get a drink.

“Mikasa!” He whines when she moves just a bit too slow for his tastes. “Hurry up!”

“What do you want?” She asks as she approaches. She stops just shy of the water.

Eren impatiently waves her over. “Come _here_! In the water! We’re going to play Chicken, you’re going to help me take down Jean and Marco!”

She thinks about it for a moment. It’s been a while since she has grappled with someone, and she does miss it, but she isn’t really in the mood to get soaked for the second time that day. Plus she’s pretty sure that the lake is borderline freezing, and the sun has gone down so it won’t be getting any warmer.

“No thanks.” She finally decides. She ignores his indignant squawking in favor of heading over to the dock.

Ymir and Sasha are already there, standing on either side of Connie.

“I don’t want to.” Mikasa hears Connie say firmly as she approaches. His arms are crossed and his feet are planted in what she assumes is supposed to be an authoritative stance; he doesn’t quite get the look he’s going for, though. The fact that he is covered in makeup and is shorter than both girls by several inches hardly helps matters.

Sasha notices Mikasa before the others and instantly hones in on her. “Mikasa, we need your help!”

Out of the frying pan and into the fire; she should have known that these three would hardly be a better choice than Eren.

Cautiously, with no promise in her voice, she asks, “With what?”

“Connie wants to go swimming but he doesn’t want to mess up his makeup.” Ymir jerks a thumb at said boy.

With lipstick reaching his ears and eye shadow dominating everything from the tips of his eyebrows to the bridge of his nose, Connie looks more like a clown than anything else. But he seems very, very proud of himself and says, “I look pretty. Sasha even said so.”

“I never would have said it if I’d known you wouldn’t swim because of it!”

“You don’t look pretty.” Ymir says, a bit harshly. “You look like a gay clown threw up and used you as a napkin.”

Connie isn’t bothered at all. “But I’m a _pretty_ napkin.”

The words have barely left his mouth when the dock starts shaking with the sound of thundering footsteps. “OUT OF THE WAY!” Reiner screams. His warning is much too late, however, and he crashes right into Connie. They both fly into the lake. Connie reemerges from the water, spluttering, but Reiner is nowhere to be seen. He moodily climbs back up onto the dock, wiping water and makeup off of his face.

Bertholdt appears seconds later, sweating nervously. He skids to a stop next to them. Shifting from foot to foot, he says desperately, “Reiner made her angry. Please don’t tell her we’re here, _please don’t tell her_ , I don’t want my nipples punched.”

Ymir looks as if she has just been given a gift. “What happened, what did you do?”

“I didn’t do- oh god.” Bertholdt’s entire body convulses with a fear that is almost tangible. “Oh god, she’s coming. Please don’t tell her!” He leaps into the water and swims under the dock, presumably to hide with Reiner.

It is a few moments before Annie joins them. She doesn’t seem to be in a rush. Her hands are buried in the pockets of her hoodie, and she seems about as apathetic as ever, but there’s something off about her. Sasha shifts her weight onto her other foot, but other than that nobody moves a muscle.

It is when Annie gets closer that Mikasa realizes what is wrong- Annie isn’t looking at any of them. She is looking off into the middle distance. She stops in front of them and stands still for a moment or two.

Then quietly, “Where did they go?” It isn’t a question so much as a thinly veiled threat, though Mikasa isn’t sure how she managed to work so much aggression into a sentence with little to no inflection.

Ymir doesn’t pick up on it. “Who?” She’s all grins and giggles, excited that maybe someone else’s day is going to be worse than hers (because Krista still isn’t talking to her, and as far as Mikasa knows a few hours is _by far_ the longest they have gone without speaking).

Annie’s gaze is still fixed somewhere over the horizon. “You know who.”

“You mean your bath buddies?”

There is a flash of movement and a huge splash. Ymir is no longer on the dock. Mikasa looks over her shoulder to see she has been literally vaulted over Annie’s shoulder and into the lake. When Connie makes the mistake of laughing at Ymir’s misfortune, Annie pushes him in as well.

Annie straightens and fixes her gaze on Sasha. Sasha throws her hands up in a show of surrender, but apparently Annie perceives the fast movement as a threat and Sasha _almost_ gets the same treatment as Ymir. “They’re under the dock!” Sasha screams.

Annie slowly drops her stance. “Thank you.” She pulls her hoodie off and removes her shoes.

One of them panics- a muffled “Oh, fuck,” and the sound of loud, reckless swimming. Reiner is fast, and Mikasa thinks that maybe he’ll be able to get away. He’s already put a respectable amount of distance between himself and the dock by the time Annie has stripped down.

She steps back from the edge of the dock so that she can have a running start. Reiner’s figure is quickly growing smaller and smaller.

Mikasa turns to watch as Annie breaks into a sprint. Her brows are angled slightly downwards, lips pressed into a flat and straight line. The thin, shallow crinkles around her eyes spell pain and Mikasa prays quietly for Reiner even as she finds herself awestruck as Annie flies past her and leaps into the water with all the grace and strength her last name implies. Her form would strike fear into anyone else’s heart, but Mikasa can’t help but find beauty there. Her dive is sharp and flawless; she hardly makes a splash. It is likely, Mikasa thinks, that the water simply parted itself around her (though she can’t say if it is out of fear or respect).

Reiner is halfway across the lake by the time Annie catches up to him. Mikasa doesn’t know what fate befalls him; they disappear underwater in what she can only assume is the most intense aquatic battle to take place since the Prehistoric times, when the mighty megalodon still roamed the seas.

Of course, if Annie were an ancient giant shark, Reiner might stand a chance. As it is now, there is no hope for Reiner. He is a dead man.

Someone prods her shoulder. Mikasa takes her eyes off of the spot where the two blondes disappeared.

“Are you alright?” Sasha asks her.

“It’s Reiner we should be worried about.”

Bertholdt and Ymir crawl back onto the dock. Connie seems to have given up and is just floating on his back.

“So… what _did_ you do?” Ymir looks at Bertholdt accusingly.

“Reiner is very, very drunk. I’m not sure he should be swimming right now.” Bertholdt answers. “I’m very worried.”

“But what did you do?”

He heaves a sigh. “I don’t want to get into it, but the short of it is…” He pauses, and smiles faintly. “Haha. Short.”

“You didn’t.” Sasha groans.

“ _I_ didn’t.” He agrees. “It was Reiner. Talking about how she only punches my nipples because that’s about as high as she can reach. Which isn’t totally untrue.”

Out in the middle of the lake, Reiner surfaces for a brief, shining moment. Annie pulls him back under immediately.

“I’m calling bullshit.” Ymir crosses her arms, highly unamused. “I call her short all the time. Pipsqueak. Tiny. Midget. She gets annoyed, but she hasn’t tried to drown me yet.”

“I don’t want to get into it.” Bertholdt repeats. “And anyways, she doesn’t want to kill you because she doesn’t want Krista to get mad at her. She doesn’t care about Krista slightly less than she doesn’t care about everyone else.”

“You lost me.” Connie kicks himself over to the dock. “Does Annie like Krista or something?”

“No! God no!” Ymir snaps. “You’re a god damn idiot! Don’t go spreading rumors like that, it’s rude!”

Sasha makes a fake phone with her hand. “Pot? Yes, hello, this is the hypocrisy police. We’ve received several complaints about you calling the kettle black.”

“The Mikasa and Annie thing was an _accident_ , oh my god.”

“You never did tell me how that started.” Mikasa says.

Ymir sneers at her. “You should have asked me while we were playing Truth or Dare.”

“That attitude is why Krista is angry with you.”

Bertholdt nods quietly in agreement and even Connie understands the flow of conversation enough to offer a resigned, “Yep, she’s right.”

From the middle of the lake, a stream of bubbles float to the surface that they can only assume is the only evidence of Reiner’s dying wail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It feels like it took me a while to update this anyways but really thank you. Agh.  
> Thanks like six thousand times for the comments last chapter and sorry for not being on top of replying to them all!!! They're really sweet and encouraging and, honestly, you guys are the only reason I took this stupid self-indulgent one-shot and turned it into... this thingy?? So thanks. I'm saying thanks a lot. I'm at a really emotional point right now okay don't judge me.  
> Also, to Crev- jfc talk about making someone's night. I have a tumblr, but I don't post original content to it. I've been thinking about making one specifically for fanwork though and it may or may not be your fault (jesus christ I can't get over).  
> I need to go to sleep but I don't think it's gonna happen good thing I don't have class until the afternoon you guys kill me.
> 
> Q: Where is Armin in the chapter??  
> A: He's in time out because Eren is still Very Unhappy with him (jk we'll see him next chapter probably sorry Armin).


	11. A Birthday Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin is sleepy, Reiner ships it, and there is cake at the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slowly sets this down and backs away cautiously*

Armin is passed out in an armchair, a half-empty can of beer held loosely in hand. Mikasa moves it to the coffee table so that he won’t move and spill it.

It is nearing midnight, and _finally_ everyone has decided that it is far too cold to keep swimming. Jean is making them take showers, though, because the stink of lake water isn’t as pleasant and romantic as the movies would have one believe.

Eren finished his shower a little while ago, and now he’s curled up on the couch in a warm cocoon of towels.

“He’s such a god damn lightweight.” Eren says (probably for the thousandth time) when Mikasa sits down next to him. “You went out to the porch and he just sort of conked out ten minutes later. Didn’t even finish one whole can.” He heaves a sigh. “Parties aren’t his thing. I don’t know why he wanted to come.”

“We can’t be his only two friends forever, Eren.” She reminds him.

Eren fixes her with a clearly disbelieving look, as if she has just uttered pure bullshit. He burrows deeper into his towel cocoon a moment later. “I guess that’s true.” He admits. “I mean, even _you_ are making new friends.”

She gives a noncommittal grunt. She has learned, by now, that agreeing or disagreeing won’t much affect his train of thought.

“You’re branching out a bunch. When we were kids, you used to only ever talk to me. It took you years to even address Armin directly.” One of his towels has slipped off of his shoulder, and he obsesses over sliding it back into place without disturbing the other ones. Mikasa rolls her eyes and jerks it back up for him. “Now you’re chilling all naked with Bertholdt and getting buddy-buddy with Krista.”

She pushes a towel off of his head so that she can ruffle his hair. “You don’t need to get jealous, you know.”

“But you even wanted to come to this party. Next thing I know, you’ll be dating that stupid asshole Jean and you won’t ever come talk to me anymore.”

Mikasa sighs. “I think you’ve had too much to drink.”

“Have not!” Eren complains.

But he definitely has; this is the third or fourth time they have cycled through this conversation. Eren is a very repetitive drunk.

Mikasa is actually sort of glad when Jean enters the living room, because Eren has a new thing to focus on now. “Hey, has anyone seen where all the towels-,” he stares at Eren for a moment, looking various levels of done. He wordlessly swipes all but one from him, muttering profanities under his breath.

“Hey!” Eren complains, lurching forward and clutching the towel around his waist. His only remaining towel also happens to be the only thing he is wearing. “I was _warm_!”

“And other people are cold, wet, and naked.” Jean fires back. “Speaking of, put some god damn clothes on!”

“Why don’t you make me?!”

“Why don’t you sleep outside?!”

Their voices fade away down the hall. Mikasa is glad she’ll finally get some peace.

Except that Connie and Sasha choose that moment to make their grand appearance, laden with blankets and pillows. “We’re setting up a pallet for everyone to sleep on!” Connie explains needlessly. He starts pushing the coffee table out the way with his foot. Mikasa is perfectly content to watch him without offering any assistance. He manages well enough and only mistakenly stubs his toe once.

“Oh, sweet! Are we all gonna sleep together on that?!” Reiner comes in, still toweling his hair dry and wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Apparently he has gotten over his near-death experience, despite the very visible bruises.

“Hell yeah we are! And it’s gonna be fucking awesome!” He runs over and gives Reiner an overly dramatic high five.

Annie steps around them and sits down on the other end of Mikasa’s couch. “Speak for yourselves.” She says. “I’m sleeping up here.”

“But _Annie_ ,” Reiner whines, obviously having no sense of self-preservation, “This is _bonding_. Friends are supposed to _bond_.”

Annie maintains perfect eye contact with Reiner as she slowly leans down, plucks up a blanket from the pile by her feet, and wraps it around her.

Reiner turns his focus to Mikasa. “Control your girlfriend, she is a _monster_.”

“Not dating!” She and Annie snap at the same time.

Reiner ignores them. “Sleeping on the floor with everyone will be fun! And cozy! We can all cuddle up and be warm! Right, Mikasa? You agree, don’t you?”

“No. Sleeping on the floor hardly sounds appealing at all.”

He whines again and flops down on the floor. He kicks his feet in the air. A tantrum is brewing.

Bertholdt saves the day with a well timed blanket. “Please excuse him, it is _far_ past his bedtime.”

His words are punctuated with a crack of thunder. The lights go out. Someone screams (Mikasa’s money would be on Bertholdt, but it could have just as easily come from Connie or Jean or _any_ of them, really).

Someone runs into the room and promptly trips over Reiner, who is still sprawled out in the middle of the floor. Reiner squeaks and the stream of cusswords coming from his assailant lets them know that Eren has returned. They also hear Ymir cackling, followed by a cry that could only have been the result of a swift elbow to the ribs via Krista.

“Anybody have any candles?” Bertholdt asks. “Or flashlights or…”

Sasha lights up her phone screen, offering minimal amounts of light. “That’s better, right?”

“Don’t sweat it. This always happens when there’s a storm.” Jean says by way of announcing his arrival. “There are candles in the kitchen, just hold up.”

Moments later, Marco and Jean have successfully set candles up around the room.

“Feels like we’re having some sort of séance.” Bertholdt says uneasily.

“No, no. You know what this is perfect for?” Connie is basically quivering with excitement. The sight actually makes Mikasa a little uncomfortable.

“…Sleeping?” Bertholdt offers.

“Ghost stories!” Sasha cheers.

“One of you is on the same mental wavelength as me.” Connie says. “And I’ll give you a hint- it isn’t you, Bertholdt.”

“Don’t worry.” Mikasa says. “That’s a compliment.”

Ymir’s cackle fills the room and Jean laughs and claps his approval, but the real prize is Annie’s singular snort. She _snorts_. Nobody else seems to notice besides Mikasa. She glances over at Annie, who is covering her face and looking thoroughly embarrassed. They make brief eye contact. Annie lowers her hands and mouths something that is most likely a violent death threat. The corners of Mikasa’s mouth twitch upwards anyways and she mouths back, ‘ _Cute_ ’ before she can stop herself.

Annie stops mid-threat and stares at her with her mouth hanging open. Mikasa isn’t sure if she is simply startled, or if she’s offended.

“Mikasa, Annie! Quit making eyes at each other and join us on the floor!” Reiner orders.

“Is someone going to wake Armin up?” Marco asks.

“Let the traitor sleep.” Eren snarls.

Marco laughs uncertainly. “Well, alright then… Well, uh, hey Reiner. Will you move the coffee table back to the center of the room? I’m going to…” He points at the kitchen. “You know.” He disappears from the candlelight’s dim radius.

Connie is already gearing up for what he probably thinks is going to be the best ghost-story telling event of his life. She hopes he isn’t putting too much stock in Eren, because all he ever talks about is zombies, and she isn’t sure any of the others can actually pull a good ghost story out of their asses. Well, maybe Ymir could, if only for the ick factor of gore and guts.

“Are ghost stories _really_ necessary though?” Bertholdt asks.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.” Jean reassures him. “Marco knows a few really good ones.”

“I wish the power were on.” Connie pouts. “Then we could watch some horror movies _while_ we tell ghost stories.”

“Double the terror.” Sasha agrees silently.

“Alright, alright! Everybody make way!” Marco calls triumphantly as he returns. “Do _not_ make me trip!”

He steps back into the light, revealing a cake. Jean squawks. “Marco, I said-!”

“No presents. You said no presents.” Marco sets the cake down on the coffee table. “I heard nothing about cake. This isn’t just a party, Jean. It’s your birthday!”

“But-,”

“No, shut up and eat the damn cake.”

“If you don’t want it,” Eren says, “I’ll take it.”

“Fuck off, Jaeger!”

“We’re still telling ghost stories right?”

“We have to sing Happy Birthday first!”

“I’m not turning _eight_ , Marco. Wait- is this cake-,”

“Covered in little green unicorns? Yes, it is.”

“ _It’s perfect_.”

They sing happy birthday, and Krista grabs the closest candle for Jean to blow out.

Marco starts handing out cake, and that’s about the time Eren caves and walks over to where Armin is sleeping. “Wake up.” He shakes his friend. “I wouldn’t deny even the most evil of monsters cake. Unless they are Jean, or Titans.”

Armin mumbles in confusion but doesn’t question the plate that Eren practically shoves in his face.

Just as the two sit back down around the table, the power comes back on.

Connie wails in despair, nearly flinging his cake across the room.

“Relax, man.” Jean says. “We can turn the lights off. Marco, why don’t you start us off?”

“Alright!” Marco grins. “Well, this one is about someone who is half-boy, half-skeleton. You see…” He spins a tale about the boy’s tragic, tragic death at the hands of cannibals. Mikasa sort of tunes him out, but she’s sure it is very well-developed and, judging by Armin’s face, properly horrifying.

At some point in the middle of the story, Annie tears a strip off of an unused napkin, wads it up, and flicks it at Mikasa’s face.

Mikasa is about to flick it back, only slightly annoyed, until she notices that there is writing on it. She unwraps it, curious as to what message it may contain.

 _I’m not cute_.

Oh. Well.

Mikasa looks up at her, eyebrows raised. She makes a gesture asking for Annie’s pencil. Nobody seems to question it when Annie rolls it across the table to her.

She scribbles just one word on the napkin before wadding it up and flicking it back at her.

Annie’s nostrils flare when she registers what Mikasa has added.

 _Short_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, thank god that's done with.  
> Sidenote- I actually got this done before midnight. This is a cause for celebration.  
> Oh and I set up a tumblr for this now (thanks Crev). I'll start posting chapters there along with here if anybody like. Prefers tumblr. All you'll really need to do is search this fic's title in the tags so. Yuh cool beans alright good night folks.


	12. Cold War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't pass notes in class, kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually wrote this not too long after I posted the last chapter (because certain people are bad influences) but I waited til now to post it to make sure I actually don't regret it anymore than the rest of this.
> 
> If there are any gruesome mistakes, please accept this nice bribe to ignore basic grammar and spelling rules/notify me and I'll fix it.

Eren is screaming profanities at the top of his lungs, half-kneeling on his bed. He looks about ready to chuck his remote across the room. He has the same look in his eye that he gets when he’s about to face off against their archrivals, the Titans.

Armin is screaming, too, but less out of frustration and more out of fear. A zombie pops up from around a corner and he topples right off of his bed, squealing and throwing his hands up.

Eren hardly notices. His screaming has lessened to a steady stream of, “ _Fucking Titans, fuck you, I’ll kill every last fucking one of you, fucking fuck off, you mother fucking Titans, I’ll slam yoU INTO NEXT WEEK GOD DAMN IT!”_ He throws his controller at the wall. It shatters. Eren stomps over to where he keeps his gaming stuff and pulls out one of his many spares.

“You should be more careful with your things.” Mikasa doesn’t even look up from her book as he flops down onto his bed and starts up another round.

“You should be more careful with- ugh.” Eren leaves his retort at that. “Armin, you doing alright?”

Armin is still on the floor, eyes closed and lips pressed together in a thin line. Mikasa thinks she hears him humming.

“I think I’m done playing for a little bit.” Armin finally sits up. “I’m going to do my homework now.”

“No!” Eren whines. “Mikasa and I went to that stupid horse-face’s party so you wouldn’t be by yourself and _you told the bath story_. You owe me!”

“It’s almost eight, Eren, and it’s Sunday. I’d like to be done with my stuff before midnight.”

Eren looks at Mikasa expectantly, waiting for her to leap to his aid.

“It’s about time you let it go, Eren.” Mikasa tells him.

He makes a noise of utter betrayal and turns away from them. He starts up a new round- single player this time- and refers to the zombies as ‘awful traitorous friends’ instead of Titans.

“Thanks, Mikasa.” Armin says. “And anyways, the party wasn’t such a bad time. Even though Eren lost at basically every game we played.”

“I did more dares than anybody! Strip Poker doesn’t count because a bunch of people joined halfway through, and Mikasa wouldn’t even play Chicken with me!” He hollers before promptly returning his focus to the TV screen. “And I _totally_ told the best, scariest ghost story!”

“That wasn’t a competition, Eren.”

Eren violently kills another zombie.

“You had a good time, right, Mikasa?” He asks, almost sounding worried.

“I guess.” She says vaguely. “It wasn’t awful.”

Armin pulls his backpack towards him and starts digging around in it. He is silent as he pulls out various binders and books. Once he leafs through them to find the specific assignments he is looking for, he says, “I’m glad. I didn’t see much of you, so I was worried.”

“That’s because you passed out cold barely ten minutes after we cracked open the alcohol.” Eren grumbles.

Armin shrugs and turns his full attention to his homework.

It’s quiet, save for the occasional war cry Eren issues each time he runs into a particularly aggressive mob. Every time he screams, Armin jumps and Mikasa loses her place in her book. It’s inconvenient, but it’s better than Connie and Sasha singing loudly in her room while they procrastinate on their group project.

“You’re going to make yourself go hoarse.” Mikasa says after the third or fourth time Eren lets out a bloodcurdling wail.

“ _All the better to scream at the Titans with_!”

“…No, Eren.” Armin corrects him gently. “That would make you sound…”

“Pathetic.” Mikasa supplies.

Eren rolls his eyes so hard his entire head moves. “Whatever.” There is a knock on the door. Eren diverts his attention from the TV for only a second before deciding he doesn’t care. “Don’t bother, Mikasa.” He says when she gets up. “It’s probably just Jean telling me I’m being too loud or something.”

He’s half-right. Annie is standing at the door and she looks about ready to march into the room and strangle someone. Seeing Mikasa makes her reconsider, though.

“Okay, first of all,” Annie points into the room, “Tell your fucking banshee to put a lid on it. Some people are actually trying to sleep. And second, thanks for being in here so I don’t have to go all the way to your own door.” She digs in her pocket and pulls out a folded up piece of paper. She wordlessly shoves it into Mikasa’s hands before storming away.

“You just narrowly avoided death.” Mikasa announces needlessly; both Eren and Armin had seen Annie at the door, and Eren has already gone so far as to turn the volume down on his game.

“What did she give you?” Armin asks, sounding far too interested.

“Don’t know.” Mikasa sits back down at Eren’s desk and unfolds the paper. It’s small, about the size of an index card. The only thing written on it is, _Scarf freak_.

“Armin,” Mikasa asks, “Can I borrow a notecard?”

“Sure, but why?”

Mikasa doesn’t answer. She takes the notecard from Armin and scrawls out in handwriting that is much more elegant than Annie’s, _Hoodie rat_.

That night, when she returns to her room, she sticks the notecard in the crack of Annie’s door.

Annie has declared war, after all. Mikasa has no choice but to rise to the challenge.

The next morning, Mikasa finds a note taped to her desk- _Emotionless_.

She responds by slipping a card into Annie’s hood at lunch reading something along the lines of _Lazy_.

This goes on for a few days; they are in a sort of cold war with each other. At any moment, they could come to blows, but for now it’s just notecards on desks, in backpacks, slipped into books. They are all incredibly short, mildly insulting, and never spoken aloud.

Armin, of course, takes an extreme interest in these secret tradeoffs. “What are you talking about?” He asks- in that incredibly obvious, way too casual tone of voice- whenever he witnesses one of them leave the other a note. “What did she say this time?”

Mikasa, as per their unspoken agreement, doesn’t let him into the loop.

They only share two classes, and it is during these that the most exchanges are made. Hanji is always too busy exploding with enthusiasm to notice, but they almost get caught a few times by the ever tyrannical Keith Shardis who screams Physics at them rather than teaching it. He nearly pops a blood vessel the first time he notices Annie flick a note at Mikasa from across the room.

“I was testing the principles of inertia and gravity.” Annie explains coolly when he slams his hands down on her desk. “Both seem to be working fine, sir. You may continue.”

He emits a noise that only dogs can probably hear and gives her detention, but Annie has had (and ditched) so many of those that it hardly means a thing.

It isn’t until the end of the week that things start to wind down. Mikasa has run out of harmless insults to fling at Annie, and she knows the reverse is true as well because her most recent retorts have all been along the lines of _Stupidly tall_ and _Dumb facial structure_.

Even if they are lacking in wit, Mikasa still has to answer. The only problem is, she doesn’t know what to respond _with_. Time is running out. The longer she waits, the more apparent it will be to Annie that she is struggling. Showing weakness is not an option.

She’s making her way down the hall to the bathrooms, hoping a shower might provide some inspiration. She guesses that something about her bun could be a good fallback if nothing else comes to her, but she would rather not resort to obviously desperate notes.

She has just reached the door and puts her hand on the knob, but it opens before she can even turn it. Surprise freezes her in place, and she finds herself face-to-face with-

God fucking damn it.

Annie stands there for a moment before slowly smirking and leaning against the doorjamb. “Have something for me, Ackerman?”

“Move it, Leonhardt.” Mikasa steps around her and sets her stuff down in the closest shower stall.

“Good luck.” Annie calls over her shoulder.

The shower yields few results. She comes up with nothing.

She has no choice, then, does she? As much as the thought makes her skin crawl, she’ll have to bite the bullet and surrender. She gets dressed as slowly as possible and makes the detour to drop her shower things off in her room. Maybe, if she stalls for as long possible, she can come up with _something_.

She doesn’t know what time it is when she finally meanders her way to Annie’s door. Apparently it’s late enough that Annie and her roommate have both fallen asleep; it takes several long seconds for anyone to come to the door.

It creaks open slowly. Annie scowls at Mikasa, making half-assed attempts to rub the sleep out of her face. Either she sleeps in her hoodie, or she pulled it on for the sole purpose of answering the door. Her hair is down.

That becomes Mikasa’s sole focus. Annie’s bun is trademark; if Mikasa wanted to spot her in a crowd, she would look for a short hoodie-wearing blonde in a bun. Seeing it down is strange and new and just as nice as she thought it would be.

Maybe nicer, actually.

She remembers last weekend at the lake house, how for the first time she had actually actively realized that Annie was, physically, very attractive. She isn’t too concerned about what that means, but the urge to tell her that she is pretty is rising up again.

“What do you want?” Annie asks crankily.

“Do you have a pen and paper?” Mikasa asks.

She squints up at her. “Are you serious. Did you wake me up for _that_.”

Mikasa waits patiently until Annie huffs in irritation and disappears into her room. She reappears moments later with the requested items and shoves them in her hands, muttering profanities.

Mikasa puts the paper up against the wall and is about to put the pencil to it when she hesitates.

Would this, technically, be admitting defeat? What she is about to write could hardly be considered an insult.

“Hurry up, will you?” Annie is slouching against the door, head tilted back and eyes closed. “It’s one in the fucking morning. I don’t care that it’s a Friday night.”

Mikasa bites her lip. Her stomach feels like it’s about to tear itself in half. This could be a bad idea. But she’s already here, and she can hardly think of anything else to put now.

 _Kind of pretty_ , she writes very quickly before practically _punching_ Annie in the face when she throws it at her.

“Ow! What the fuck, Mikasa?!” Annie yelps as she holds a hand to her nose.

Mikasa stares at her for a moment. She supposes she should apologize. Instead she turns and casually walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh.
> 
> Sorry they didn't mud wrestle.


	13. Friends Tell Friends They Are Pretty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Eren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting good at not updating at stupid hours. It isn't even close to midnight yet!

Annie has hardly looked at her- let alone spoken to her- at all over the past few days. While that is actually pretty normal for them, Mikasa can’t help but feel uneasy. She is pretty sure it has to do with the note she had handed off to her the other day which only makes her feel worse. Annie probably thought it was weird.

But it isn’t weird, is it? It can’t be _that_ weird to tell someone they’re pretty (never mind the fact that, up until recently, Mikasa had found such compliments baffling).

Then again, what sort of relationship do she and Annie even have? To say they are friends would probably be stretching. Mikasa knows people who know people Annie knows. Sometimes they are teammates, but with hardly a few sentences exchanged between them, they aren’t really friends. Are they?

She sinks her head into her hands with the hopes that blocking out external stimuli such as the harsh cafeteria lights will help her think harder.

“Mikasa,” Eren asks, “Are you doing alright?”

“Are you feeling sick? I can take you to the nurse.” Jean puts a hand on her shoulder.

She lifts her head and shrugs his hand off. “I’m fine.” She sees Connie poking sadly at his food and, hoping to draw the attention to someone else, asks, “Connie, what is it?”

“Sasha got in trouble for eating in class so she’s in detention right now, and Reiner ditched me to go sit with Ymir.” Connie complains, pointing moodily with his fork.

Mikasa looks over her shoulder to where he is pointing. Sure enough, Reiner and Bertholdt are on the entire other side of the cafeteria, sitting on either side of Annie.

“Why _is_ he all the way over there, anyways?” Eren asks. He seems put out by Reiner’s apparent betrayal, too. “He doesn’t even like Ymir.”

“Probably just wanted to go sit with Krista.” Jean makes kissy faces.

Marco rolls his eyes. “Your face is going to get stuck that way.”

“It’d definitely be an improvement.” Eren grumbles.

Jean makes an offended sound and looks at Eren like he just dropped a grenade in his food. “Maybe I should go sit with them too!”

“No!” Connie whines. “This table is the best, it’s closest to the lunch line!”

Mikasa looks over at the other table again. Annie happens to look up at the same time and they end up having a mini-staring contest. Ymir notices and leans across Bertholdt to whisper something to Annie. Annie punches her.

Eren’s complaining draws her back to her own lunch group. “I just don’t get it! We know _Bertholdt_ didn’t make the executive decision to get up and move camp! Why would Reiner abandon us?”

“Maybe Annie was the one who decided to relocate because you’re annoying as fuck.” Jean suggests, still bitter about the face thing.

While Jean’s remark starts a mini civil war among them, Mikasa thinks about what he said.

Maybe Annie _was_ the one who decided to move.

Maybe it’s Mikasa’s fault.

“Do friends tell friends they’re pretty?” Mikasa asks, silencing the entire table.

“Uh… what…?” Jean is blushing. “Uh, well, if they like them. Like, _like_ -like them.”

“Bullshit, Sasha and I tell each other we’re pretty all the time.” Connie scoffs.

Armin looks like he’s conflicted with himself. He opens his mouth a few times but shuts it.

Eren slams his hands down on the table, looking at Mikasa with an intensity he usually only reserves for violent sporting programs. “Mikasa.” He says very, very firmly. “You are _beautiful_ and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“Eren, I’m not sure that’s what she…” Armin trails off weakly, though, because Eren looks like he is nowhere near finished.

“I know I don’t tell you often!” He says. “Because you’re like my sister and I take you for granted, but Mikasa! You’re really pretty! And don’t you think for a second you’re not! Friends _do_ tell friends they are pretty, but sometimes we forget! Sometimes, we get so used to it that we forget to comment on it! So if you’re worried that you’re not pretty because we never tell you, I’m sorry, Mikasa. You are, though. You’re really pretty.”

Eren bows his head, apparently overcome with emotion. Armin pats him awkwardly a few times.

“Right. Thanks, Eren. See, I’m asking because I told Annie that she’s pretty and I thought, maybe that’s why they moved.” She thinks about it for a moment. “Though I’m not sure Annie and I are even friends.”

“Of course you are.” Marco says. “Aren’t you?”

“The friendship isn’t real until half the school thinks you’re dating.” Connie points out. “I mean, that _was_ a thing, wasn’t it?”

Mikasa shrugs.

Maybe they are friends, but Mikasa isn’t sure she likes the sound of that. Not that she doesn’t want Annie in her life, it’s just- the more she thinks about it, the more a friendship with Annie seems so unsatisfying. She doesn’t really like the idea of having the same relationship with Annie that she does with Eren and Armin at all.

When she handed off that note to Annie, she had been nervous, but the adrenaline rush had kept her up for hours. She kept wondering how Annie had reacted, if maybe it made her feel good.

Now that she thinks about it, though, their entire exchange up until that point hadn’t exactly been that sort of thing. What if Annie thought she was being sarcastic?

What if Annie thought Mikasa didn’t actually find her pretty?

“Armin, I need an index card.”

“What, again?” Armin digs into his backpack. “You’re usually so prepared.”

“I don’t take notes on cards.” She points out when he slides it over to her. She scribbles out what she believes to be a very clear and concise sentence- _I really like your hair_ \- and slides the card into her binder.

“What’s that?” Eren asks.

“Nothing.”

“Is this all part of your note exchange with Annie?” Armin asks.

“Maybe.”

The lunch bell rings before he can press further.

The next hour crawls by way too slowly. Mikasa has never- not even _once_ \- looked forward to Shardis’s class, but she is counting the seconds until the bell rings and she can leave this room for his.

Luck is with her, and she is one of the first people to get in there. She quickly finds Annie’s desk, folds the note in half, and leaves it there for when she gets in.

“Jesus, Mikasa, are you Speed Racer or something?” By the time Eren arrives, she is already sitting innocently at her desk. He flops down in the one next to her, even though it technically isn’t his assigned seat. “Why’d you leave our last class like that?”

“No reason.” She rests her cheek against a fist and tries not to watch the door too closely. Annie is normally the last one in, slinking by Shardis just as he is about to shut the door.

Eren kicks lightly at her chair. “Hey, what’s going on with you? Armin’s noticed something too. You sure you’re okay? It’s not about the pretty thing, is it?”

“No, Eren. But that was sweet of you.”

“So, what _is_ it?” He presses.

Mikasa shrugs. “Nothing bad, I think.”

Like clockwork, Annie steps past the door and the bell rings half a second later. Eren pats Mikasa’s shoulder and goes to his seat. Mikasa watches Annie cross the room.

She hesitates when she sees the note. She glances at Mikasa, who manages to look away just in time. She fixes her eyes on what Shardis is writing on the board for a few seconds to be safe.

When Mikasa looks back, Annie has sat down and is pulling the note towards her cautiously, like it might bite her if she makes any sudden movements. Mikasa kind of wants her to hurry up and read it already. It’s just a note. It’s not _that_ big of a deal.

Finally, Annie unfolds it. Mikasa holds her breath.

She turns red- bright, _bright_ red- and slowly reaches back. At first Mikasa thinks she is going to touch her hair, but she reaches back further and grabs her hood. She pulls it up over her face and stretches out, face-down, across her desk.

Is… that a normal reaction? Mikasa isn’t sure. It could be. Her main frame of reference is Eren (maybe Armin), so it isn’t as if she would be an expert on this.

Annie lifts her hood a little and casts another glance at Mikasa. She can’t look away fast enough to seem casual this time, so she doesn’t even try. Instead she lifts one hand and offers a small wave.

Annie goes ever redder and lowers her hood once more.

It occurs to Mikasa that Annie probably thinks she still isn’t being serious. It’s a troubling thought, but she’ll have to deal with it later. She needs to focus on Shardis’s lecture and take notes, because she knows Eren won’t and he’ll fail this class without them.


	14. The Shocking Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa never saw it coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on Spring Break so I don't know how much I'll update this week because I will be spending 90% of my time with my beautiful majestic cat (and I guess family too). But hey, this chapter is a little longer than normal.

If Mikasa didn’t know any better, she would think Ymir is dying. She has been curled up on the floor, clutching her ribs and cackling, for at least ten minutes. Mikasa is actually a little impressed that she hasn’t run out of breath yet.

The laughing is a little disconcerting, though, considering Mikasa wasn’t telling a joke. Plus they’re in the middle of the hallway. People are staring. Maybe Mikasa should leave.

“I don’t get it.” She says, deciding that retreat is an option for another day.

Ymir shakes her head and seems to make a genuine effort to control herself, but another look at Mikasa sends her spiraling into another fit of the giggles.

She rubs at her temple, annoyed. At this rate, she’s going to be late for her last class of the day.

“Sorry.” Ymir chokes. “Sorry, I just- oh wow.” She gets to her feet and inhales as deep as she can. “Man. _Man_.”

“Just answer the question.”

“Repeat it for me please? It was so funny I forgot it.”

She isn’t sure why she decided to turn to Ymir for help. All evidence shows that Ymir is the _worst_ person to come to for literally anything. It was a spur of the moment decision because they made eye contact in the hallway, but Mikasa regrets it pretty hard right now.

It’s too late now, though. “What does Annie like to do for fun?”

A high-pitched whine precedes another round of incredibly loud and obnoxious laughter, but Ymir at least manages to stay standing this time. “How the fuck should I know?”

Mikasa shrugs. “I thought you might talk to her more than I do.”

“I don’t make a habit out of talking to brick walls.” Ymir waves a hand in front of her face. “I’m already talking to you so I’ve made my quota for the week.” She sniffs away the last of her giggle fit and adds, “You might have some luck talking to her roommate, though.”

The warning bell goes off.

“Best hurry up, star student.” Ymir waves her along. “You have some academic excellence to achieve or whatever. Don’t forget to leave a review and rate your experience out of five stars. Contact customer service for more information.”

“I’ll definitely be sure to talk to Krista about it.”

“What? Dude, no, I was kidding. Dude, she _just_ forgave me for that whole misunderstanding with you and Annie!”

That isn’t really Mikasa’s problem.

She goes to Annie’s room first thing after her last class ends. She doesn’t know what she’ll do if Annie is there- panic, probably- but it turns out that she doesn’t have to worry about it. She doesn’t even get a chance to knock on the door, because Mina Carolina calls out to her before she can raise her hand.

“Hey, Mikasa! Looking for Annie?”

Mikasa steps back from the door so that Mina can unlock it. She isn’t really looking for Annie, but the only reason she has sought out Mina is to talk about Annie. She isn’t sure how to phrase that without sounding like an ass, though. “Sort of, I guess.”

“She usually disappears somewhere to be on her own after classes.” Mina says. “You could try the library or, if you’re feeling like breaking rules, the roof. Or she might be with Reiner and Bertholdt.”

Mikasa hums and nods. She stands there with Mina for a moment while she tries to think of a way to guide the conversation to her primary topic of interest. The longer she is silent, the more uncomfortable Mina starts to look.

“So, um, how was Jean’s party?” Mina asks when she comes to terms with the fact that Mikasa will keep staring at her otherwise. “Annie didn’t say much about it.”

“It was alright. I’m not really a party person.”

“Neither is Annie. I’m surprised she went at all. Well, I’m going to-,”

“What _is_ Annie interested in, anyways?” Mikasa totally cuts off whatever Mina was going to say. She feels a little bad about it. Those are the sorts of manners Eren boasts. She’s better than that- at least, she thinks she is.

Before she can apologize, though, Mina answers, “Uh, well, I’m really not sure. You’ve probably noticed she’s a quiet type of person. Sort of like you!” She laughs nervously. “Uh, well, anyways. I’ve got some homework to do, so…” She gestures to her room. “I’ll let Annie know you stopped by.”

Mikasa lets her dart inside of her room. She tries not to feel too frustrated, but now she is at a loss for who to ask for help.

She thinks about going to brood in her room for a while, but when her pocket buzzes and she sees that Eren has texted her in all caps, requesting she get to his room “ON THE DOUBLE,” her priorities shift.

The entire door is, mercifully, still intact when Mikasa arrives. There is a shoe keeping it ajar, so she pushes it open and walks on in.

She barely gets out a greeting when Eren wordlessly shoves a piece of paper in her hands. She looks down at it, eyebrows raised.

It looks like Eren used every marker in Armin’s 48 box set at least once. There are smiley faces, birds, and what she assumes are sparkles all over the page. In the center, big black letters spell out, _MIKASA IS PRETTY_.

“Hang it on your wall.” He says in all seriousness. “So you don’t forget.”

“Thanks, Eren.”

“I’m sorry I’m shitty and all I do is yell at games and Jean.”

“You’re fine, Eren.”

“You seem to like passing notes so I made you this all during Shardis’s class.”

“You should pay attention, Eren.”

“Well, I didn’t do it _all_ during his class because I didn’t have any markers, but I drew it out and stuff and colored it right when I got back. Armin said it was okay to use his and he helped color, so it’s from both of us.”

Armin smiles awkwardly and shrugs from his desk, where he is busy meticulously reorganizing his markers.

It’s touching that Eren is still so worried. Mikasa doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he’s still misunderstanding the situation. She just hugs him instead. “I’ll put it up right above my desk.”

“Okay, but do that later and hang out with us.” Eren tugs on her sleeve so that she’s completely in the room. “We’re hanging out, no video games or anything. We haven’t done that in a while.”

She looks over at Armin, who offers a helpless smile.

“Eren, are _you_ okay?” Mikasa asks. She sits down on Armin’s bed and starts taking off her shoes.

“Yes! Absolutely!” He answers a little quickly.

She stares at him. He makes a valiant effort to maintain eye contact, but in the end they always crumble.

“Is this about all that stuff you said at the party?”

Eren huffs and crosses his arms. “What? No! I was so drunk. I don’t even remember like any of it.”

Armin finally finishes up with his markers and puts them away in a drawer. He spins his chair around so that he can participate fully in the conversation. “What’d he say at the party?”

“He was worried we’re going to make new friends and forget about him.” Mikasa says even while Eren screeches, “NOTHING, I SO DID NOT SAY THAT!”

“We aren’t really making _new_ friends, Eren.” Armin points out. “We’ve been going to school with these people for a while.”

Eren’s entire being seems to cave; his shoulders hunch and his head lowers and he pouts at something to his right. “But they aren’t our _friends_. They aren’t _my_ friends, anyways. Except for Reiner, Reiner is definitely my friend, he’s cool. Maybe Connie. Marco would be, if he didn’t orbit Jean’s massive ego.”

“If it helps at all, you’ll always be my best friend.” Armin offers. “I mean, I’ll never forget that it was Jean who used to make fun of me on the playground and you who used to push him down in the dirt for it.”

“But you want to be friends with him now! Why? He’s a dick! He was mean to you and you went to his lame party anyways!”

“I actually didn’t really want to go.” Armin admits.

“What.” Mikasa deadpans.

“Are you _serious_.” Eren adds.

Armin looks from Eren to Mikasa. “You guys _know_ I hate parties.”

“Yes. But we went for you because we believed you wished to try something new.”

“ _You told the bath story_.”

“I had a reason to go!” Armin says. “And you guys had fun, didn’t you?”

“No! Marco gave me nightmares!” Eren whines. “That, or Jean’s face did.”

“I got drenched in freezing rainwater and nearly broke Ymir and Krista up.”

“But,” Armin holds up a finger and looks each of them in the eye for a few moments, “You had fun.”

“What was your big huge reason for wanting to slum it with Kirschtein?” Eren asks. “And you had _better not_ tell me you’ve got a crush on him.”

“No.” Armin says slowly. “But I can’t really tell you why.”

“Armin, our delicate friendship hangs in the balance.”

“Weren’t you the one crying about how you’re worried about us ending our friendships with you?”

“Mikasa, I love you. Don’t talk.”

Armin swallows nervously. “Look, I _can’t_ tell you. It isn’t my place, you know?”

“Is it because Jean is crushing on Mikasa? You better not be trying to hook them up.”

“Wait. Jean is what?”

“It isn’t that at all! Did we forget the whole Jean-bullying-me thing?”

“I haven’t! _You_ obviously have!”

“I have not! I don’t hate Jean for what he did when he was _eight_ , Eren, but I don’t exactly want him dating Mikasa. Unless Mikasa wants to.”

“Jean is _what_?” Mikasa repeats.

Eren turns to her, eyes wide in exasperation. “You’re _kidding_ , right? Right?”

“I thought he and Marco-?”

Armin’s expression grows contemplative, but Eren slams his palm into his forehead. “Mikasa! The guy has been crushing on you ever since the third grade! _He picked on Armin to get your attention_!”

“I never realized.” She shrugs.

“The lake house!” Eren practically screams. “Did you not hear me explicitly state that that creep was always perving on you?”

“I thought you were joking.”

Eren rests his head in his hands and starts to pray quietly. She hears him mutter, “How? _How_ can she be so smart but so clueless? Please, blessed saints, give me strength.”

Armin sighs and shakes his head. “I’m not too surprised. No offense or anything, Mikasa, it’s just… when it comes to people, you’re sort of…”

Her initial instinct is to be very offended, but then she thinks about how she has been oblivious to this information for several years now; not to mention the entire misunderstanding with Krista, which then extended to Reiner and Bertholdt and still floats around the back of her mind whenever she thinks about how pretty Annie is.

She hangs her head and sighs. “I know.”

They each fall silent. Eren is shaking his head and sighing a lot. Armin shifts uncomfortably in his chair.

Mikasa fixes her eyes on the paper in her hands. She doesn’t really want to keep talking about herself, but Armin notices a lot of things about people and this could salvage Eren’s (unnecessary, but sort of endearing) attempt at maintaining their friendship. Two birds, one stone.

“I think I want to take Annie out.” She says.

Eren’s head snaps up. Armin squeaks.

“What, you mean- like a _date_?”

Mikasa shrugs. “I don’t know. I want to spend time with her alone and get to know her better.”

“As a friend?” Armin asks while Eren opens and closes his mouth silently, like a fish. “Or…?”

She really hasn’t thought about it that much. She hadn’t realized it might be such a big deal, whatever it was. She tries her best to explain anyways. “I keep trying to tell her she’s pretty, but I don’t think she believes me. I want to do something so that she will.”

Armin covers his face with his hands and spins slowly in his chair. Eren keeps up with his fish impression.

Oh god. She had thought this would help, but she’s just making things worse. The boys obviously don’t want to talk about this. She doesn’t think it’s an issue of them not caring, though. It might just be that they don’t get it. She tries explaining again.

“It’s like, ever since that thing with Krista I’ve thought about her more. And I realized she’s pretty. And we’ve been giving each other sort of mean notes. But I decided to tell her she was pretty one day. She’s really pretty. _Really_ pretty. Have you noticed?”

Armin has pulled his legs into his chair by this point and his hiding his face in his knees. His chair is losing its momentum so now he’s just sort of rotating to a stop. Eren has settled on keeping his mouth hanging open.

This is a train wreck. She can’t stop talking. This is why she never shares stuff like this.

“She doesn’t believe me, though, I think, and… it’s sort of like with you, Eren. I’m worried about it. I want her to know. And, I don’t know, it’s nice to do things for people, isn’t it? When you like them, that is. I think I like her. I don’t know what kind of like. I don’t think it’s the same kind of like I have for you guys.”

Eren’s mouth snaps shut. Armin has yet to emerge from his knees.

“I mean, I love you two. A lot. I don’t love Annie. I hardly know her. But I want to. Know her. That is…” She trails off.

“Okay, to put this in Jean terms…” Eren finally says, “You think you _like_ -like Annie?”

“No. Maybe?” Mikasa shrugs again. “I don’t know. I want to spend time with her, but I don’t know what she likes to do.”

“I have an idea.” Armin says, and it’s almost inaudible because he’s still hiding his face in his knees. “Mikasa, what if you _asked_ Annie what she likes to do?”

Mikasa stares at Armin silently until he finally lifts his head to make sure she heard him.

“Armin.” She says softly. “You are very, very smart.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's six in the morning. Well, actually, it's seven, isn't it, because I'm back home for a week.  
> The point is, I have once again neglected sleep. At least I'm on break, but I was doing so well. I have failed.


	15. It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa needs to quit her shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got sick at the end of Spring Break. Upside, I got extra time off school. Downside, I spent most of it sleeping. Whatever I had, I'm getting over it, but of course my first instinct is to stay up ~ridiculously late~ because I'm so good to my immune system. Oh well.

“Well? Have you done _it_ yet?”

It’s the first thing Armin says to her for the third day in a row. She tries not to feel too annoyed. “Done what?” She keeps dutifully reading over her notes. She isn’t worried about today’s test, but it’s a convenient way to avoid eye contact with Armin. Plus he’s such a serious student, he’ll probably leave her alone if he thinks she’s studying.

Armin doesn’t fall for her clever ruse; that, or his obsession with Mikasa’s relationships has overridden his previous programming. “You know what.”

She flips to the next page of her notes. “Hmmm.”

Armin sighs and opens his own notes. “You oughta do _it_ soon, you know?”

She knows. She is upset with herself for putting it off this long, but it isn’t as if she can help it. She and Annie don’t see each other that much. They don’t usually work together on group projects, they don’t sit close to each other in class, and Annie still isn’t eating lunch with them.

Mikasa supposes she could always go knock on Annie’s door, or stop her in the hall, or even tape a note to her desk. She could always look for her when classes are over. She could always go over to her desk before class gets out.

Her hands start to feel weird and numb. She has a little bit of trouble flipping to the next page of her notes. Her mouth feels dry, but she has trouble getting her water bottle open too. Even when she manages to take a drink, her mouth still feels wrong and the water settles, cold and heavy and uncomfortable, at the bottom of her uneasy stomach.

“Hey, Mikasa, do you feel alright?” Armin looks a little panicked. “Are you getting sick? Do you think you can hold out until the end of the test?”

Mikasa shrugs. She doesn’t think she is sick. This feeling is a vaguely familiar one. She thinks she remembers feeling this way the first time she stepped into the Jaeger household with the knowledge that she would be staying there forever.

“You look exhausted.” He adds when she doesn’t give anything more in response.

“I’m fine, it’s just…” Her eyes travel along the same string of words over and over. “I think I might be, you know…”

She waits for him to make some sort of noise like he gets it, or to fill in the blank, but he keeps looking at her with eyes creased with worry.

“Nervous.” She finishes for him.

“Oh!” His eyes light up. “Do you want some help? I’m here if you need any sort of support. I can help you think of a game plan, if you want!”

“I think I’ll be fine.” Mikasa flips her notes closed, making the decision to get the whole thing over with today in order to get Armin off of her back about it.

Of course, this is the third day in a row she has made this decision, but maybe this time it’ll bear some fruit.

The first class she has with Annie is no good. Hanji talks the entire time from start to finish about the reproduction of anglerfish. Mikasa is able to forget her predicament for a while because she is too busy being vaguely horrified by the whole male-absorbing-himself-into-the-female thing. Eren thinks it’s pretty cool and actually pays attention to the entire lecture and Armin is taking detailed notes as if this will show up on the test (it won’t, Hanji just likes to talk about weird stuff). Mikasa figures she can ask Annie what she thinks about it as a way to start up a conversation, but Annie is out of the classroom before Hanji even dismisses them.

Lunch is also a no-go. As has become the norm, Annie goes to sit all the way across the cafeteria and Mikasa can’t come up with a good reason to make her way over there.

“Your reason _is_ a good reason.” Armin whispers to her when she mentions this in the lunch line. “Just _go do it_.”

She doesn’t, of course, because he’s wrong. And anyways, Ymir would probably ruin the entire conversation with a single look. Armin lets the conversation go when she brings that point up because, well. She’s right. That, and Eren elbows him and tells him to just let it be.

Jean keeps trying to talk to her all throughout the lunch hour. Mikasa has no idea _how_ he does it without freezing up the way she has been the past few days. It’s admirable, and she thinks she should compliment him on it, except now she has to consider the knowledge she has recently been made privy to. What is appropriate for her interactions with him? She should probably tell him that she isn’t interested, shouldn’t she? How does one go about doing that?

She never asked for this.

In the end, Mikasa sort of nods along to whatever Jean says and ignores the pointed looks Armin keeps shifting between her and Annie.

Eren isn’t nearly as pushy about the situation as Armin is. Mikasa has no idea what’s gotten into Armin. He has never been, in Mikasa’s extensive memory, this pushy over anything. Eren, however, has transformed into some miraculous pillar of brotherly support. It’s like they traded personalities and the change is a little dizzying for Mikasa. Eren is even taking notes in Shardis’s class, and that’s almost enough to convince Mikasa that the past few weeks have just been some sort of fever dream.

Annie, unlike Eren, has not taken a sudden interest in physics. She doesn’t even show up to the class, which means Mikasa doesn’t get a chance to talk to her.

Well, it’s really too bad. She retreats to her room, content in the knowledge that she will just have to put it off until tomorrow.

She gets a few hours to herself before Sasha returns from socializing. She is curled up with a book, nice and comfy. She hardly looks up when Sasha stops humming and says, “Hey, Mikasa.”

“Hm.”

“Connie is coming over in a bit to study.”

“Right.”

Sasha pouts at her. “Well, don’t sound so enthusiastic. We’ll actually get work done this time- promise.”

“Hmmm.”

“Hey, have you talked to Annie?” Sasha is digging in her food drawer now. “Ugh, I’m sick of this flavor.”

Mikasa’s heart leaps up into her throat. “What?” Does Sasha know? How does Sasha know?

Sasha holds up a bag of chips without looking at her. “I’ve been eating this for the past few weeks. Used to be my favorite, but-,”

“Not that. Why would I need to talk to Annie?”

Sasha shrugs and switches out the chips for pretzels. “Uh, I don’t know. Apparently she’s been looking for you?”

“I’ve been right here this whole time.” Mikasa says, a little stubbornly. “If she’s looking for me, she can come here.”

Sasha pops open the bag and shoves a fistful of pretzels into her mouth. “Look,” she says as she chews, “I’m just passing along what Reiner told Connie to tell me. Pretzel?”

Mikasa stares at her roommate for a few moments, cheeks bulging with semi-chewed pretzels. “I’ll pass.”

She slides out of bed and tugs some socks on.

“Annie is probably in her room right now, I think.” Sasha offers helpfully.

“I’m not going to go talk to Annie.” She holds up her book. “I’m going to go read in Eren’s and Armin’s room. It’ll be much quieter.”

Sasha tries to look offended, but then she decides that Mikasa is probably right and just gives a sort of half-shrug. “Yeah, Annie is probably taking a nap now anyways. She really sleeps a lot. I thought she just stayed up all night and that’s why she sleeps during all her classes, but whenever I stop by her room to talk to Mina she’s just… always… sleeping.”

“Hm.”

Mikasa hears Sasha flop down on her bed and groan loudly, presumably kicking at the air with her legs. “I hate it when you do that!”

Mikasa gives another noncommittal grunt and shuts the door on Sasha’s complaints.

She doesn’t go straight to her boys’ room, as she had originally told Sasha would. Really she had only told her that so she wouldn’t assume that Mikasa would head straight to Annie’s room. Because she isn’t. Even the thought of doing so brings back that cold, shaky feeling and she doesn’t like it at all.

Another thing she doesn’t like- this whole “he said, she said” thing that seems to have become popular among the group of people she finds herself surrounded with. She is wary to go speak to Annie on the basis that Reiner told Connie to tell Sasha to tell her if only because she is starting to learn that almost everyone she knows is incredibly unreliable (particularly those three, and Ymir, and- just, all of them).

She stands firmly by the belief that if Annie _actually_ wanted to talk to her, she would seek her out herself.

Of course, that raises the concern- does Annie _not_ want to talk to her? Has Mikasa done something wrong?

Mikasa doesn’t think that any of her behavior around Annie up until this point has been out of line. She hasn’t even tried to slip her any more notes.

But Annie is still sitting clear on the other side of the cafeteria, she still won’t carry a conversation on the rare occasions they run into each other, and it has gotten to the point where she won’t maintain eye contact anymore. Mikasa thinks that last one might be Ymir’s fault, though, because whenever she notices them having a stare-off she has to interrupt somehow.

Mikasa doesn’t know how much time she spends pacing the halls. She gets a lot of odd looks from other students who are still milling around, but eventually they too retreat to their rooms as the halls grow darker.

Regardless of whoever is saying whatever, Mikasa really probably should talk to Annie. She can’t keep dodging around the matter. In the end, waiting will probably end up being more agonizing than actually doing _it_.

She steels herself against the numbness already spreading from her extremities. She checks her scarf for courage and sets out for Annie’s room.

She is expecting a significant delay between her tapping on the door and getting an answer, but the door opens hardly a few seconds after her knuckles leave the door.

“You’re awake.” Mikasa notes, mildly surprised.

Annie looks down at herself like she’s never seen her own body before, then back at Mikasa. “Oh, well, it’s just a Christmas Miracle, isn’t it?” She shifts back into a slouch, mouth setting back into an expressionless line. “What do you want?”

Mikasa stares at her for a long, silent moment while she tries to find the words to say. It’s harder than she thought it would be. She is pretty sure she went over it with herself several times over the past few days, but now that she’s actually talking to Annie all that seems to have dissipated like steam into the air.

She shifts her weight to one foot. Annie follows the movement suspiciously.

“I want to take you out.”

Annie’s eyebrows raise, but other than that she is totally still.

Then she looks into her room over her shoulder, steps out into the hall fully, and closes the door. In a quiet voice, she says, “You want to what?”

“Take you out.” Mikasa fights the urge to clear her throat- such an admission of weakness, a sign of discomfort, would do little to help her now. She fights to keep her voice flat, her tone even, her face straight. “On a date.”

Annie studies her closely, lips pressed into a thin line.

“Did Ymir put you up to this?”

“Pardon?”

Her nostrils flare and her jaw clenches. “Go away, Mikasa.” Annie turns around and practically slams the door in her face.

Mikasa stares at the door, confused. She had been very clear, hadn’t she? She had. She definitely had. She doesn’t think it gets much clearer than that.

She thinks about trying again just in case. Her fist is poised to tap out another round of staccato knocks, but she thinks more closely about Annie’s reaction and can’t bring herself to do it.

Mikasa had been very clear, after all. And so had Annie.

She simply isn’t interested.

The more she thinks about it, the more Mikasa realizes she should have known. It isn’t as if Annie has given her much reason to believe something like this would yield positive results. She stopped participating in the note exchange the second Mikasa changed it into something resembling admiration and made the extra effort to move away from her at lunch.

She really, really should have known. But obviously she knows nothing when it comes to people- she wonders when she is going to finally understand that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I love you


	16. True Friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You think you know a guy...

“Hey, Mikasa, did you do it?”

That is hardly the first thing Mikasa wanted to hear today. She had hoped that, it being a weekend, Armin would leave her to dwell in her own space and hopefully forget all about yesterday.

For a second, she thinks maybe she dreamt it, but her eyes still sting. She hopes they aren’t red. That would be embarrassing- more embarrassing than dealing with Sasha and Connie. Neither had any idea what was wrong, but both worked hard to crack jokes and offer her food and pat her shoulders and throw blankets on her. Eventually, Sasha realized what she really needed was space and ushered Connie out the door to embark on some adventure. As far as Mikasa knows, they stayed out all night because Sasha still hasn’t returned.

She can’t believe she cried in front of them. She can’t believe she cried at all. The mortification almost makes her forget about how awful she is feeling about Annie. Almost.

The longer she neglects to answer Armin’s question, the more worried he seems to get. “Mikasa?” he prompts carefully.

“I-,” her voice is raspy, so she has to stop and clear her throat. “I did, yeah. I talked to her.”

Armin’s face splits into a huge grin. “When’s the date?”

“There isn’t going to be one.”

And just like that, she witnesses his face crumble like the Berlin Wall. “What? No! Why not?”

“I guess she just isn’t interested.”

Armin drags his hands through his hair, eyes wide. She thinks he might actually cry. He looks like he is going to argue with her, but she doesn’t really see how he could. She was there, he wasn’t.

Finally he takes in a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Mikasa.”

She shrugs.

“Look, if you want to be alone that’s fine, but… you know, our room is always open.” Armin says gently.

“I know.” She isn’t feeling up to it right now, though. “Maybe I’ll come by later.”

“Alright.”

“And don’t tell Eren about this.” She says firmly. The last thing she needs is Eren declaring war and trying to do something stupid, like beat up Annie. He’d just wind up with a broken arm and various other fractures all over again.

“I won’t.” Armin promises. He wanders off down the hall, head hung low.

Mikasa briefly considers going back to sleep, but it’s far past noon and she hasn’t even eaten yet.

The cafeteria around this time of day is usually empty, but Mikasa still changes her clothes and makes sure she looks like a normal, decent human being before leaving because, with luck like hers, she’ll end up running into someone she doesn’t want to talk to anyways.

As she had expected, the cafeteria is empty and she manages to eat in peace. Or, she does right up until Eren bursts in, scans the tables wildly, hones in on her, and comes charging over.

He does a near perfect slide onto the bench and glides to a stop next to her, leans in close, and hisses through his teeth, “ _Who did it_?”

Mikasa sighs and presses her fingers to her forehead. “Armin told you.”

“No, but he’s a shitty liar and Connie is a true friend. Who made you cry. Was it Jean? I bet it was Jean.”

“Eren, it’s okay. It’s hardly a big deal.”

Eren very slowly sits up straight and fixes her with a quiet, almost unnerving intensity. “Mikasa, I haven’t seen you cry since you came to live with us when we were eight. This is a very big deal and if you will not exact vengeance then it falls upon _me_ to make them pay.”

She pinches his ear and twists it, and in his desperate attempt to escape her grip Eren bangs his head on the table. “Ow, what the fuck?!”

“Language.” She flicks his ear for good measure.

“Come on!” He whines, rubbing his ear. “ _You’re_ always babying and coddling _me_ and it’s really annoying but I put up with it!”

“That’s because you constantly act like a child.”

Eren slumps down on the table and looks dolefully up at Mikasa, jutting out his lower lip for good measure.

“You’re hardly doing anything to disprove my point.”

“Is it about Annie?”

Mikasa looks away from him. He sits back up.

“Did she turn you down?”

Mikasa nods. “But I think Armin is more upset about it than I am.”

Eren chuckles. “Maybe. He’s really been looking forward to it ever since…” He frowns. “Huh.”

“What?”

“Nothing, something just seems weird.” He thoughtfully chews on one of his knuckles.

“Eren?” She prompts.

“It’s just, Armin was talking to me- after you told us you wanted to ask Annie out- he was talking to me about some conversation he’d had with Reiner and Bertholdt.” He leaps to his feet and grabs her wrist. “Come on, we’re going to my room.”

He doesn’t give her much of a choice or even a chance to throw her trash away. He goes pretty much full speed all the way down the halls, dodging around students and literally running over Jean (Mikasa is pretty sure that was on purpose, though).

He throws his door open and runs straight in, yelling, “Armin, I need your brain-!” He stops dead and Mikasa barely manages to avoid crashing into him. His grip on her loosens. She takes the opportunity to pull her wrist out of his hand.

“Yo.” Ymir says, eyebrow raised. “There a fire or something?”

“Ymir, leave, we need to discuss Important Things- capital I and capital T- with Armin.”

She snorts. “ _I’m_ discussing important things with Armin. No capitals because I’m not a fucking nerd.”

Eren looks ready to throw punches. Mikasa clamps a hand down on his shoulder to make sure he does exactly not that.

“Armin, make Ymir leave!” He demands, seeing as violence won’t be an option.

Armin looks torn. His eyes dart between Ymir’s smug expression and Eren’s outraged snarl.

“… Sorry, guys.” Armin says carefully. “Can it wait? I’m really sorry, Mikasa. I know I said…” He trails off and looks at Eren to make sure he isn’t about to snap.

For a moment, Mikasa thinks Eren is about to pull an Incredible Hulk; then- to her surprise- he takes a deep breath and wordlessly turns away.

“Come on, Mikasa.” He says to her after he takes a few moments to collect himself. “We’ll go find our true friends and talk to _them_.”

He leads her around and knocks on a lot of doors, but in the end they can only find Connie and Sasha, bleary-eyed from the all-nighter they probably would have pulled with or without Mikasa’s interruption.

“I can’t believe them.” She hears him seething under his breath as he paces the length of Connie’s room. She isn’t sure who he’s referring to- maybe Armin and Ymir, still. Possibly Reiner and Bertholdt, who they had run into heading off to ‘nowhere’ but who seemed to be on their way to something pretty important regardless. Or maybe he’s talking about Thomas, who just looked really confused when Eren told him he was recruiting an army, or Mina, who didn’t even answer her door, or Hanna and Franz who “dared to be gross and couply” in front of “poor, heart-broken Mikasa.”

The more time she spends with Eren, the more she thinks he might need some serious help, or at least some way to channel his excess aggression once all the sports the school has reluctantly let him into wind down.

Whatever it was that Eren was planning, it is obvious that Armin was a key part of it because he has no idea what sort of general point he even wants to try to convey to Connie and Sasha beyond, “Ymir is disgusting,” and, “We are each other’s only real friends.”

They both quickly lose interest in Eren’s ravings and sit down on either side of Mikasa.

“How are you feeling?” Sasha asks.

“Fine.”

Connie shifts nervously next to her. “Is it cool to ask what that was all about?”

Mikasa shrugs. “I asked Annie out. It didn’t go well.”

They both just sort of stare at her. Eren keeps ranting in the background.

“What?”

“I thought all of that was a joke?” Connie rubs furiously at the thin, stubbly hairs on his head like they’re hurting his brain. “I’m so confused!”

“It was. Sort of. It was a misunderstanding.”

Sasha throws her head back and makes a gargling noise. “Why are you people so confusing! This is why I like Connie. He’s not confusing.”

“Same, Sasha! You’re not confusing either!”

“Mikasa, you’re sort of confusing, but you’re also kind of straightforward so you aren’t as confusing as everyone else.” Sasha reassures her.

“Thanks. I think.”

Eren is still stomping around and recycling things he’s already complained about. Connie suggests putting on a movie if they’ll be in there for a while. Eren protests and demands that they remain focused until Connie completely derails him with _Jurassic Park_.

Mikasa isn’t in the mood for movies, though. “I think I’m going to head back to my room and sleep.”

Eren is, once again, nothing but concern. “You don’t want the solidarity of our friendship?”

“I think I’ll be alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally longer, but I cut the second half out because it's going in the next chapter. Of course, it's still about the average length of all the other chapters so. Eh.


	17. Clear Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Be clear with your words and also don't skip classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be the longest chapter yet.

Mikasa almost doesn’t get out of bed on Monday. She hasn’t slept well at all over the last few days and the thought of struggling through lecture after lecture just isn’t that appealing.

If she does that, though, Eren and Armin would worry and she’d probably fall behind in her schoolwork.

Sasha seems to have forgotten completely about what happened over the weekend as she leads Mikasa to the cafeteria for breakfast. It’s a little refreshing, considering the fact that Eren and Armin had each been stopping by her room all throughout Sunday to check on her and make sure she was holding up alright.

Of course she’s holding up all right. It’s not like Mikasa just got out of a two-year relationship or something. Up until two weeks ago, the only things she ever thought about Annie were ‘ _short’_ and ‘ _good at sports_.’ It’s isn’t as if this experience has emotionally crippled her or anything.

Though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, just a little, when she walks into the cafeteria and sees Annie taking a nap in Reiner’s breakfast space like nothing at all has happened.

In a way, nothing really has. Asking Annie out had seemed like a huge deal to Mikasa because she was nervous, but all Annie had to do was say no and shut the door. She didn’t spend days worrying about it.

Apparently she was standing in the middle of the cafeteria and staring, because Sasha gently tugs on her arm. “Come on, Mikasa, don’t let it bother you.”

“Yeah.” Eren adds. Mikasa is almost startled, if only because she doesn’t remember him coming up to her. “You know, it’s probably for the best that it didn’t pan out. If Annie had said yes, she’d need to carry a stepladder with her everywhere.”

Mikasa stares at him.

“What?” He asks.

She keeps staring.

“It’s… cause she’s, you know. She’s short.”

He shifts uncomfortably under the weight of her gaze, the pride in his joke slowly fading.

“Was it… too soon?”

She turns away from him without a word to go collect her breakfast.

Armin is already at the table, picking at the edges of his toast. He looks absolutely miserable. He glances up from his toast hopefully when Eren sits down, but Eren blatantly ignores him and strikes up a conversation with Connie until the bell rings.

Her classes go by blessedly fast. She doesn’t pay as much attention as she should during Hanji’s class, though. She keeps glancing over at Annie, wondering what’s going through her mind. She doubts she is still dwelling on what happened like Mikasa is. She hopes, at the very least, she isn’t still as angry as she had seemed that night.

She ends up staring at Annie for the majority of class. Once, Annie catches her gaze, glowers at her, and promptly looks forward again. Mikasa tries not to stare so much after that. It’s rude and probably comes off as creepy.

When the lunch bell rings, Annie darts out of the room faster than Mikasa has ever seen.

Everyone files out at a more regular pace. Armin and Eren wait for her, but Eren is still very obviously giving Armin the cold shoulder. Mikasa isn’t sure that it counts as ignoring someone if you’re going out of your way to make sure they know they’re being ignored, but his point gets across well enough. Armin definitely looks like a young child who has been thoroughly scolded, but doesn’t quite know what he did wrong.

“What’s going on there?” Jean asks Mikasa when they sit down and Eren walks all the way around the table just so he won’t have to be next to Armin. He and Connie resume whatever conversation they had been having over breakfast.

“Eren is angry because Armin blew him off for Ymir.” Sasha answers through a mouthful of potatoes.

Eren draws in a hissing breath through his teeth but gives no other indication that he is listening to anything other than Connie.

“Why would Armin do that?” Jean asks, raising an eyebrow. “I mean… if given the choice, even _I_ would pick him over her.”

Eren actually looks at them this time, frowning intently at Jean. “What?”

“Well, I mean, on a list of people I’d want to hang out with, you’re still at the bottom. But Ymir is probably below you.” Jean huffs.

A look of pride blossoms on Marco’s face and he puts a hand on Jean’s forearm. “Jean, are you…?”

“I’m not trying to make friends with Eren if that’s what you’re saying.” Jean snaps.

Eren glances off to the side. “Thanks, I guess. And same. You’re better than _that_ person, too. Barely.” He squints at Jean. “Maybe.”

An awkward silence hangs over the table, accompanied with the vague knowledge that this is probably the closest to a compliment these two will ever pay to the other.

Sasha shatters the moment with a nonchalant, “I don’t know, I like Ymir. She’s not so bad.”

“Yeah.” Armin says tentatively. “I mean, she isn’t my favorite person, but…”

Eren makes a noise in his throat like Armin just stabbed him. “Isn’t she though, Armin? Did you not wave us away like our friendship meant nothing when Mikasa so desperately needed you?”

“I was trying to-,”

“Devastated! Our best friend was _devastated_ , Armin, and what were you doing? Having tea with literal trash! Sleeping with the enemy! To think I ever pushed Jean down for you. Maybe you should go join the other traitors at Ymir’s table.”

Jean looks at Mikasa, perplexed. “What happened? Is Eren just being dramatic again? Armin and Ymir aren’t actually sleeping together, are they?”

“Of course not!” Armin screeches.

“That came out a bit quick.” Marco teases.

“Hold on, hold on. Isn’t Ymir dating Krista?” Connie asks, missing the joke in Marco’s tone completely. “Armin, don’t be a home wrecker. It’s not cool man.”

“Wait, what’s all this about you being- devastated, or whatever?” Jean has returned his focus to Mikasa.

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s _everything_!” Eren objects. “Mikasa, don’t downplay your feelings for our sakes! It’s okay to feel sad.”

“She almost stayed in bed today.” Sasha notes. “So yeah, I guess you are more upset than you’re letting on.”

“What’s wrong?” Marco asks.

“She asked Annie out and Annie said no.” Connie supplies.

Jean’s mouth hangs open. Marco helpfully pushes his chin up with an index finger, and his teeth clack together audibly in the surrounding silence.

“Oh.” Connie says uneasily. “Was that a secret?”

“Not really.” Marco says. “I mean, everyone here knew but Jean.”

Eren’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “What? How did you know, Marco?”

“Um…” Marco shrugs. “Lucky guess. And Armin told me so that I could break it gently to Jean.” He glances at his best friend. “Sorry, Jean.”

Jean just sighs and shakes his head. He looks at Mikasa. “Sorry you got turned down. Annie must be insane.”

Mikasa looks at her hands and shrugs. “She slammed the door in my face.” She admits.

Eren looks almost as offended as he had when Armin had chosen to speak to Ymir over him. “She did _what_?!”

“I guess she was mad.” Mikasa says. “I mean, I understand why. I didn’t really think about her feelings at all.”

Armin makes a high-pitched whining noise and starts to say something, but Eren cuts him off. “Don’t talk like that! You don’t deserve slamming doors!”

“Think about it. She moved tables when I told her she was pretty. I should have taken the hint then. Now that I think about it… I should probably apologize, shouldn’t I?”

“No! You weren’t in the wrong! She was!”

“Well.” Armin says delicately, “You should definitely at least talk to her.”

“Armin!” Eren’s voice hits a note that makes them flinch.

“I’m just saying! Not that Mikasa was wrong or anything, but maybe there was some, I don’t know, miscommunication somewhere along the way.”

“Armin.” Eren seethes. “Have some common decency, man. Even _Jean_ is behaving better than you and he wanted to date Mikasa.”

Jean huffs and Marco pats his back.

“I’ll try talking to her before Shardis’s class.” Mikasa says. “If only to try and put this all behind us.”

Eren still thinks that it should be Annie to come crawling back to Mikasa begging for forgiveness.

“What if she skips that class again?” He asks instead. “You’re not gonna, like, run yourself ragged over this, are you? She doesn’t deserve that much effort.”

“I know what room she lives in.” Mikasa says evenly. “And I know how to knock on a door. I’ve done it several times before, Eren.”

He grumbles, upset that his last ditch effort has been thwarted. He spends the rest of lunch eating in moody silence.

He makes a few feeble attempts throughout their next class to remind her how Annie deserves nothing but scorn and contempt. He only stops after Petra threatens to make him stand up in front of the class and recite the main points of her lecture.

Now they’re hovering outside of Shardis’s door. Mikasa leans against the wall and settles in to wait, but Eren isn’t pleased with that at all. “So you’re just gonna… wait out here?” He asks uncertainly.

“Yes.”

He chews on the inside of his cheek for a moment. “You’re going to look like a loser.” He waits for her response with baited breath.

“It was a nice attempt, Eren.”

“If you wait out here to do this before class, you’ll end up being late and Shardis will give you detention.” He points out.

Mikasa shrugs.

“I still think you should make her apologize to you.” He crosses his arms.

“Go inside, Eren.”

He rolls his head until his neck clicks. “I bet you she’s gonna skip.”

“Eren.”

“Alright, alright.” He starts to step through the doorway. “Just,” he pauses, “Whatever happens, Annie sucks and you don’t.”

“You going to make a colorful sign out of that, too?”

Eren’s eyes light up and he whispers, “ _Yes_.” Then he vanishes into the classroom.

The minutes tick by and other students filter in, none of them sparing Mikasa a second glance. Nervous tension starts to knot up her stomach. She fights the urge to tap her foot or get fidgety. She hates feeling this way. She has come to the conclusion that it is definitely the worst part of having feelings for someone, by _far_.

Cutting it close to the wire as always, Annie doesn’t appear at the end of the hallway until the final bell is about to ring. Her eyes flicker to Mikasa for half a second, but her leisurely pace and her posture are both completely unaffected.

Mikasa thinks she might actually stop to talk to her, but as she draws closer she gives no indication of intending to slow to a stop.

Mikasa swallows hard and pushes away from the wall. “Annie, can we talk?” She asks when she is still a few feet away.

Annie shifts her torso just the slightest fraction towards Mikasa, but she’s still walking.

“I want to apologize.” Mikasa adds.

She’s walking slow enough that coming to an immediate stop doesn’t seem to take too much effort. Annie crosses her arms and doesn’t look directly at Mikasa. “Fine.”

Mikasa swallows down her nerves and assures herself that offering up an apology isn’t quite the same as making a date proposal. Even so, the words stick in her throat.

“Hurry up, will you? The bell’s going to ring soon.”

“It isn’t my fault you walk so slow.” Mikasa retorts.

“Are you trying to apologize or make things worse?”

That comment stings, but Annie has a point. Mikasa doesn’t really have room to be snarky right now. “Sorry.” She mumbles. “I’m just trying to organize my thoughts.”

Annie doesn’t seem at all sympathetic. She starts to tap her foot, as if she really is looking forward to Shardis’s class today and Mikasa is doing nothing but inconvenience her and her perfect attendance.

“I should have realized my advances weren’t welcome.” Mikasa finally manages to get out. “I’m sorry.”

Annie snorts. Mikasa tries not to be discouraged and forges onwards.

“You’re really very beautiful.” She says. “And graceful and impressive. And even though you don’t seem to feel the way I do, I hope we can still be friends. I’m sorry I made you so uncomfortable that you changed where you sat at lunch. I’ll be more respectful of your boundaries in the future.”

Annie furrows her brows and tilts her head. Mikasa waits for her to say something to indicate forgiveness, or at least some sort of acknowledgment of her efforts.

Instead what she gets is a moody, “I thought you were apologizing.”

“I… am?”

Annie squints at her. “Mikasa, it wasn’t funny the first time and it isn’t funny now. Tell Ymir her jokes suck and next time she sends you over here, I’ll break her arm.” She starts to step past her.

“What does Ymir have to do with anything?”

Annie stops and stares at her.

Mikasa stares back.

“What do you mean?”

“You brought her up the other night, too. What does she have to do with this? Aside from starting that rumor, I mean.”

Annie puts a hand to her forehead and slowly shakes her head. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you kidding me?”

“No…? I can’t say that I am.”

“Ymir didn’t put you up to this?”

“No. Definitely not.” Mikasa is actually a little offended by the accusation.

“Oh my god.” Annie’s other hand joins the first so that her eyes are covered. “Oh my god. No.”

Mikasa leans on one foot. She’s done what she came to do. The bell is going to ring any second now. “Does this mean you accept my apology?”

“Hold on…” Annie frowns and peeks through her fingers. Mikasa thinks she might be blushing. “So were you… _actually_ asking me out?”

“…Yes?”

“Oh my god.” She hides her eyes again. “I’m so sorry. I thought Ymir… I thought she told you to do it. As a joke.”

“Why would she do that?”

“I…” Annie pulls her hands away from her face. “Why would you ask me out?”

Mikasa thinks about it, worried it might be a trick question. “Because I like you?”

“Oh, of course. Silly me.”

Mikasa shifts her weight to her other foot. “Well, if that’s all, I’m going to go in now.”

“Wait.” Annie reaches out but doesn’t quite touch her, snatching her hand back at the last second. “Hold on.”

Mikasa hesitates and looks back at her.

Annie sucks her lips between her teeth. It is the only deviation from her typical facial expression and so it looks a little strange, but that’s probably not what Mikasa should be focusing on right now. “I do a lot of nothing.” She finally says. “It’s probably boring for other people, and I don’t really care if it is or not. But I wouldn’t mind doing a lot of nothing with you. You know, if you want.” She stops, presumably waiting for an answer. When Mikasa stays silent, she adds, “I’m asking you out.”

Before Mikasa can do anything by way of reacting, the bell rings. The noise is abrupt and grating. Mikasa flinches.

“Shit.” Annie breathes. “Okay, we might as well just ditch. Trust me, going in now isn’t worth dealing with Shardis.”

Unfortunately, she says this as Shardis stalks over to shut the door. He steps out of the classroom, teeth bared like he’s ready to attack. “And what do you two think you’re doing?” His eyes flit from Mikasa to Annie, then back to Mikasa as if he is having trouble processing the two of them side-by-side, out in the halls, late for his class.

“Ackerman, I’m disappointed in you.” He finally snarls. “I expected as much from Leonhardt, but you…” He shakes his head.

“I’m sorry, sir.” She offers.

Shardis breathes in slowly through his nose. “Because this is your first offense I’m assigning you detention.” He says, making an obvious effort not to tear into her. “I’d do the same for Leonhardt, but she’d just skip and her father has stopped returning our calls.”

Annie makes a loose rock-on gesture with one of her hands. Mikasa tries to hold in her laughter and ends up snorting as a result. _Snorting_. How embarrassing.

While Shardis lectures them about responsibility and respect, Annie nudges her with an elbow. When Mikasa looks over at her, she smirks and mouths, ‘ _Cute_.’

Mikasa narrows her eyes. Annie thinks she’s clever, does she? Best put a stop to that now. She mouths back, ‘ _Short_.’

Annie scowls, mouths, ‘ _Pay attention_ ,’ and looks back at Shardis as he paces up and down the hall, red in the face and spittle flying from his lips as he gets more and more into his rant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp.


	18. D is for Detention (But Definitely Not Date)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Detention is the worst. Truly. This school's punishment system is a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for waiting patiently. I'm sorry this one took so long.

Eren strains uselessly against Mikasa’s grip as she drags him away from Shardis’s room by his shirt collar.

“Stop that.” She says. “You’ll only end up tearing your collar.”

“You don’t deserve detention!” He croaks out, clawing at the buttons on his shirt.

“Don’t you dare strip in the middle of the hall.”

He flails his arms an a wild attempt to convey his dissatisfaction. Mikasa only catches it out of the corner of her eye so the gesture is ultimately in vain. “You were outside the entire time! That doesn’t count! Shardis is a monster that needs to be destroyed! It’s all Annie’s fault, she should get detention, not you!”

“She did. Technically.”

“She’s just gonna skip it. They should expel her!”

Mikasa stops in front of a classroom. “This is your next class, correct?”

“Yeah, but-,” She shoves him inside, ignoring any further complaints he issues as she starts off in the direction of her own class.

A few minutes later, her phone goes off. She pulls it out of her pocket and flips it open. It’s from Eren (“ _MIKASA WE SHOULD SUE THE SCHOOL_ ”), so she ignores it. He keeps texting her throughout the following hour. It’s annoying enough that she turns the vibrate function off.

The remainder of her class is pretty peaceful after that.

The bell rings and she packs up her things. She starts to head off in the direction of the dorms before remembering detention is in the other direction.

She lets herself feel annoyed for a second. Even without Eren screaming in her ear, she knows that detention is probably a bit much, considering she was right outside the classroom and she’s never done anything to incur Shardis’s wrath before. She thinks a simple warning would have sufficed.

Still, considering what she got in return for that sacrifice, she can’t hold on to anything resembling displeasure. There is a spring in her step that has other students staring at her even as she basically bounces into the detention room, and it’s hard to fight down the urge to rub her hands over her face because Annie basically asked her out, with those precise words and everything- asked her out, and while what they might do is a mystery because Mikasa still isn’t sure what she likes to do outside of wrestling and (apparently) nothing, it’s still exciting and worth every second of the upcoming hour.

“Ackerman, are you lost?” Levi eyes her, obviously not sharing her good mood.

Mikasa strides past Levi without answering. It isn’t until she takes a seat, only to find him staring at her as if she’s just tracked mud all over his floor, that she realizes the question was not rhetorical.

“No, sir.” She gets a handle on herself. She should probably save acting like a fool for when she’s alone in her room.

He doesn’t seem convinced. “Ackerman, this is the detention room. Where you brats come for after school detention. Do you understand?”

“I’m not an idiot, sir.”

He frowns at her, sitting on his desk.

“I was late to Shardis’s class.” She offers, because it’s slowly becoming more and more apparent that he isn’t going to leave her alone.

Levi’s lip curls up, unimpressed. “ _You_ were late? What, did you have to take a shit and it just wouldn’t come out?”

“I don’t think that’s an appropriate conversational topic for a teacher to have with a student, sir.”

“Not a teacher.” He points out. “A counselor. As if I could deal with you disrespectful little shits every god damn hour of the day.”

“You are considerably less agreeable than Shardis.” She agrees.

Levi levels a sharp glare at her, but doesn’t raise an argument.

“Why are you here anyways, sir? Isn’t this typically run by a teacher?”

His upper lip curls up in disdain. “Hanji spilled one of their freaky experiments all over their classroom, so they’re cleaning it up before the entire wing starts smelling like shit.”

The door swings open and Annie slouches in, hands buried in her pocket.

Levi raises an eyebrow at her. “Well, that’s _two_ people I never expected to show up to detention. It’s the god damn Twilight Zone in here, isn’t it. What are you in for, Leonhardt? Dress code violation? Vandalism? Armed robbery?”

“I was late to Shardis’s class.”

“Not a very popular man, is he.” Levi rests his chin on his fist. He already looks ready to leave.

Annie shrugs and sits down in the desk adjacent to Mikasa’s.

Levi slides off of the desk and into the chair behind it, kicking his feet up on it and watching them moodily.

“So, what.” He says after a moment. “Do I just watch you or something? Ten lashes to anyone who talks?”

Mikasa assumes, once again, that the question is rhetorical and doesn’t answer.

“Leonhardt, you’ve had a fuckton of detentions, shouldn’t you know?”

“How many have I actually come to?” Annie retorts.

Levi leans his head back and sighs like this is the worst thing he has ever been forced to resign himself to. He slides his feet off of the desk, does a compulsive sweep across the surface with one of the anti-bacterial wipes he keeps in his pocket, and slams his forehead down on the polished wood. “This is so boring. I don’t want to babysit a couple of teenage brats.”

“Sir, I’m not sure you should be presiding over detention if you’re going to act like a child.”

“You wanna go help Hanji scrape semi-gelatinous goop off the walls and floors?”

“Point taken, sir.”

Levi sits back in his chair again and swipes a notepad off of the desk. He starts flipping through the pages with minimal interest, grabs a pen, and starts scrawling all over them.

She hears the sound of tearing paper to her right. Moments later, something small bounces off of her head.

She glances over at Annie and sees her wadding up another small strip of paper to flick at her.

“What?” She whispers.

Annie looks at her for a moment, poised to launch her second tiny missile.

“Don’t you dare.” She warns her quietly.

Annie stares deep into her eyes, curls her finger, and lets the small paper projectile fly. Mikasa can only watch as it arcs through the air. It hits her right between the eyes. Annie smiles in satisfaction.

Mikasa leans down and picks the paper wad up, examining it. There is no hidden message. Annie is just being a child to be a child.

Is this really who Mikasa has deemed to be worthy of her time and affection?

She flicks the ball back at her. It hits her in the nose.

Annie’s smiles vanishes. She hunches over her desk and starts ripping up more paper strips. Mikasa quickly digs some paper out of her backpack so she can do the same. Levi keeps writing whatever it is he is writing on his stolen notepad, either oblivious to the battle brewing in front of him or simply not caring.

It isn’t long before bits of paper give way to chunks of erasers and pen caps. A few have gotten caught in Annie’s hood, and Mikasa will probably need them back later, but for now she is taking that as a victory because Annie hasn’t noticed yet.

It isn’t until Annie throws a highlighter at Mikasa and Mikasa swats it away so that it sails through the air and clatters against Levi’s notepad that their supervisor takes note of what’s going on. He looks at them, then at the room, and sighs. “Well, that’s it. I’m done.” He sets the notepad down (Mikasa catches a glimpse of it as he does so and sees that he has decorated the first page with crude drawings of Principal Erwin getting repeatedly punched in the face). “Be free.” He makes a sweeping gesture with his hands.

Mikasa checks the time. “We still have half an hour, sir.”

Levi sighs tiredly, as if Mikasa has just quietly informed him that the sun has gone out and soon they will all die. “Ackerman, if you want to sit quietly at that desk throwing things at Leonhardt for the duration of what’s left of this hour, then please do so. But I just know Hanji is doing a shit job of cleaning up and it’s causing me anxiety. They probably aren’t even using soap. Do you want to be responsible for a bacterial outbreak _as well as_ my inevitable nervous breakdown?”

“No, sir?”

Levi stands up, as if that closes the conversation. “Oh, and pick up all this crap.” He gestures loosely to their used ammunition and then stalks out of the room mumbling about cleaning supplies.

“Don’t actually.” Annie says as Mikasa leans down to pick up a wayward piece of eraser. “We have janitors, you know.”

Mikasa throws the chunk of rubber at her. It gets caught in her hair. “You started it.” Mikasa points out when Annie scowls at her.

Annie leans against her desk, thoroughly unamused. “It passed the time, didn’t it?”

“I guess.” Mikasa steps towards her and reaches out a hand.

Annie goes very still and whatever retort she had been about to fire dies on her tongue. Mikasa is pretty sure she turns a faint shade of red.

Mikasa plucks her pen caps out of Annie’s hood and turns away.

“So does this count as our first date?” Mikasa asks as she packs up her things.

Annie’s teeth click together. “That’s not funny, Mikasa.”

“Why do you always think I’m joking?”

“Well.” Annoyance permeates Annie’s tone. “As far as first dates go, this would be a pretty shitty one, wouldn’t it?” She snatches her backpack up off the ground.

“Why’d you come to detention, then?”

“Because- well, I might as well go to _some_ of them.” Annie shoulders her backpack roughly.

A wonderful realization comes to Mikasa and she can’t stifle her grin. “Is it because I was here?”

“No! Look, I don’t want you to get confused.” Annie says. “When I asked you out earlier- that was just, like, to hang out. That’s all.”

“Mmhm.” Mikasa intones. “And when I asked you out, it’s because Ymir told me it’d be funny.”

“What?” Annie looks absolutely horrified.

“Of _course_. The one time I actually am joking, you believe me.”

“That’s not funny. You’re not funny.”

Mikasa bumps her shoulder lightly with her own. “Calm down.”

Annie mutters something under her breath. “Whatever. I’ll see you later.”

She heads off in the direction of their dorm.

Mikasa stares at her, then takes a few lengthy steps to catch up.

“Why are you following me?”

“We live in the same dorm, remember.”

Annie frowns at her.

“Are we back to the not-talking thing?” Mikasa probably really shouldn’t antagonize her. She’s obviously regressed back to being bothered despite the progress made by that hallway conversation, but the more moody Annie gets, the cuter she becomes. It’s like a whole new world and Mikasa can’t help but be curious.

“It’s not like we ever talked before.”

“Maybe we should thank Ymir. She’s the one that made Krista think we were dating, and if not for that I never would have thought about you.”

“Wow.” Annie deadpans. “Thanks.”

Maybe that was the wrong thing to say. Mikasa really should shut up.

“Now I think about you a lot.” She says, hoping to repair any damage she may have caused.

Annie side-eyes her skeptically.

“That’s why I asked you out. You know, when you slammed the door in my face.”

Annie groans. “Don’t remind me.”

Mikasa smiles and refrains from saying anything else.

They finally come to the hall where they must go their separate ways. “See you later.” Annie mumbles. She glances up at Mikasa’s hair and her eyes light up just a little. Mikasa doesn’t think too hard about it.

“Try not to let Eren see you when you pass his door.” Mikasa says. “I’m pretty sure he’s decided you need to be disposed of.”

Annie shrugs- as if Eren could even _dream_ of touching her- and walks away.

When she gets to her room, Sasha gives her a funny look. “Hey, Mikasa? You’ve got paper in your hair.”


	19. Labels and Numbers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neither seem to be readily available.

Eren and Armin have invaded her room. Normally they respect her privacy, but Eren is still demanding blood compensation for the injustice of their school system and Armin, as always, wants to know how things with Annie went.

She is sitting cross-legged on her bed. Armin has hesitantly taken up post at the foot of her bed, and Eren has commandeered her chair and is sitting in it backwards. He has the floor right now and is going over plans to storm the office and destroy any existing records of her detention. He seems to be in favor of burning the entire room to be safe, but to be honest Mikasa has only been paying minimal amounts of attention. She’s still trying to comb all of the paper out of her hair.

“I’m pretty sure Levi didn’t even mark us off.” Mikasa tells him when he takes a breath for air.

“Plus, I think arson is against school rules.” Armin adds.

Eren’s eyes narrow. “… Levi didn’t mark you off?”

“He didn’t even keep us for the full hour.”

“He _does_ care!” Eren pumps a fist into the air triumphantly. “This is fantastic! This means that we have a man _on the inside_!”

“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care.” Mikasa corrects him. “At all. About anything.”

“Can’t you see, Mikasa? His apathy is nothing but a ploy to keep the enemy fooled!”

“Okay.” Armin holds up his hands. “We can discuss where Levi’s true allegiance lies later.”

“No, we have to figure it out _now_!” Eren leans in close, eyes burning with passion. “It’s so important, Armin. Maybe you’d understand that if you weren’t letting Ymir-,”

Mikasa pushes his face and he spins slowly away from them. The second he loses sight of them, the fight goes out of him and he slumps in the chair. When it spins to a stop, facing them once more, Eren’s expression is dazed and confused.

“Thank you, Mikasa.” Armin says after an awkward pause. “What’s with all the paper in your hair?”

Mikasa shrugs.

“The heathens in detention, probably.” Eren hisses through his teeth as he recovers from his stupor. He isn’t wrong so Mikasa nods.

“Alright.” Armin is willing to let it slide, if only because he cares about other things more. “How about that conversation with Annie?”

“Oh, that…” Mikasa shrugs. “It went alright up until Shardis came out.”

“So she’s not mad at you anymore?” Armin asks. “Are-,”

“Who cares? I still say that-” Eren violently surges forward and nearly topples over the back of the chair. He ends up overcompensating and tumbling out of the chair backwards, hitting the floor with a screech and an audible _thunk_.

“Oh, geez. Eren, are you all right?” Armin slides off of Mikasa’s bed to check on him.

Eren lets out a throaty yell. Mikasa assumes it is to put Armin’s worries at bay, but all it really does is scare him.

“I’m taking you to the nurse. Mikasa, we’ll talk later, okay?”

Mikasa makes no indication that she doesn’t want to, so he smiles and nods and pulls Eren out of the room.

When the door shuts, she lets out a quiet sigh of relief. They had ambushed her right as she was getting back from detention; she had planned to drop off her school things and then go eat, but they kept her there for at least an hour. Her stomach is making noises that would probably prompt Sasha to offer her entire food drawer to her.

She wonders if Annie has eaten yet. She thinks about texting her to ask her, but when she pulls out her phone she realizes she doesn’t even have Annie’s number.

It makes sense. She doesn’t remember ever exchanging numbers with her. It seems silly not to have her number, though, now that they’re…

What are they?

Mikasa is _pretty sure_ they aren’t friends, but now that opinion stems from the knowledge that Annie is totally into her, rather than her previous notion that Annie totally hates her guts. But she’s also pretty sure that stating they are anything more than that is a gross overstatement. They only _just_ cleared up that huge misunderstanding (that she should probably punch Ymir for, apparently) and they haven’t even been on one date. Unless detention counts. Annie never answered that particular question.

Mikasa promptly decides that labels are stupid and stops worrying about it. She’s too hungry for all of this anyways.

She also decides not to walk to Annie’s room to see if she’s eaten. She has two reasons for this. The first being, Eren and Armin live just a few doors down from her, and if they’re back from the nurse by the time Mikasa gets there then she’ll probably be stuck until the cafeteria closes. Mikasa loves them- she really does, they’re like her brothers (well, Eren technically _is_ her brother) but she doesn’t love them enough to go hungry for the night.

The second, Annie lives on the other side of the floor and if Annie has already eaten, then Mikasa will have gone all that way for next to no reason. She likes her and all, and she does want her number, but she can always get it after she eats and then go continue her conversation with the boys if they catch her.

It’s a good plan and she’s sticking with it.

As she makes her way through the halls, she catches sight of Ymir leaning up against the wall just outside of the bathrooms, texting. She looks up from her phone and they make eye contact for a brief moment. Mikasa hurriedly tries to look away and prays that Ymir won’t talk to her.

But, of course, Ymir pockets her phone with a smirk and falls into step beside her, a little too close for comfort. Mikasa comes to the conclusion that there is no god.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t our newest troublemaker. One disastrous love confession and she’s picking fights with _Shardis_.”

“That’s not quite how it went.” Mikasa tells her politely. “And if I’m not mistaken, it’s your fault Annie reacted the way she did.”

Ymir shrugs, nowhere near as bothered as an accusation like that should make her.

“So what, you waited outside of her classroom like, uh-,” Ymir clasps her hands together, fluttering her eyelids and pursing her lips. It is possibly the most disturbing thing Mikasa has ever seen her do. Almost as disturbing as the sickly-sweet tone that permeates her voice as she sighs, “ _Sempai, please notice me_.”

The joke flies right over Mikasa’s head. “What?”

“Come on!” Ymir complains. “You’re Japanese, you should get that reference.”

She scowls at something off in the distance. “I grew up here in this country just the same as you.”

Ymir pouts. “Okay, whatever, so you’re not some gay anime nerd.”

“Was there a point in you coming to talk to me?”

“Um… No. I just got tired of waiting for Historia to come meet me. She was taking a long fucking time.” Ymir sniffs loudly, as if that might convince Mikasa that she doesn’t actually care or whatever.

“How _does_ she put up with you?” Mikasa asks.

Ymir frowns. “What do you mean?”

“You’re _insufferable_.”

Ymir grins. “Aw, thanks, Mikasa.”

“It’s not a compliment, Ymir.”

Ymir loops an arm around Mikasa’s shoulders and holds the other out in front of them like she’s sharing some deep life secret. “It’s all in how you look at life.”

“Please get off of me.”

“Worried Annie’s gonna see and get jealous?”

“Worried I’m going to detach your arm and feed it to Sasha.”

Ymir releases her and slowly steps away. “You should eat a Snickers, Mikasa. You’re not you when you’re hungry.” When Mikasa fails to laugh, she shoves her hands into her pockets moodily. “Lighten up, Mikasa, I’m just trying to be friendly. We’re friends, right?”

“Hardly.”

Ymir mimes being stabbed in the chest. “After all I’ve done for you, too.”

“You mean setting events in motion that would make this past month incredibly stressful and confusing, right?”

Ymir smiles proudly and nods, obviously very satisfied with her handiwork.

“I just don’t get it.” Mikasa pushes the door to the cafeteria open. “I just will never understand what she sees in you.”

“It’s the freckles. Bitches love freckles.” Ymir winks and does a lame double-gun gesture at Mikasa.

Mikasa is glad when she turns to leave, presumably to return to her rendezvous point with what Mikasa can only assume is the most patient and pure-hearted girl to exist in all of time and space.

When she finishes eating and leaves the cafeteria, she passes Ymir again. This time Krista is with her, so Ymir smirks and raises an eyebrow at her but, thankfully, doesn’t try to talk to her again. Maybe god exists after all, but only within Krista.

As if reading her thoughts, Krista smiles at her. Mikasa resolves to ask her why she puts up with Ymir next time she gets the chance.

Right now she doesn’t care so much, though. She heads out in the direction of the dorms, patting her pockets to make sure she’s remembered her phone. She’s going to go get Annie’s number, give her boys’ door an obligatory knock, then retreat back to her room to do her homework.

Mikasa gets about as far as step one. She taps on Annie’s door and Annie answers with about as much warmth as always.

“What.” She squints at Mikasa. “Oh, you got the paper out.”

“Yeah.” Mikasa runs a hand through her hair to make sure that she really did. “You didn’t.”

Annie pats her own hair and groans when she feels the wads of paper still in her hair.

“Anyways, I just realized,” Mikasa says holding up her phone, “I don’t have your number.”

“I guess that’s a thing.” She agrees.

They’re silent for a few seconds.

“I… was hoping I could get it?” Mikasa prompts.

“Oh. It’s-,” she trails off with a mildly perplexed frown. “Well, I don’t actually have it memorized.” She retreats back into her room. When Mikasa makes no move to follow, she calls over her shoulder, “You can come in. I won’t murder you.”

“Alright…” Mikasa steps inside and looks around- or, she tries. The lights are all off, though now that Mikasa thinks about she doesn’t ever remember them being on during past visits. The air is also freezing. “Why is it so cold in here?”

“I get hot easily.”

“Why not take off your hoodie?”

Annie looks at her like that’s the dumbest god damn thing Mikasa has ever said before returning to searching her room.

“It might be easier to look with the light on.”

Annie grumbles and gestures in the general direction of the ceiling fan, which is spinning rapidly. Mikasa assumes that is permission to turn it on. She goes to the switch and flips it, but nothing happens.

“Is it broken?”

Annie looks up from the drawer she is rummaging through. “No. You have to pull the chord.”

“Oh.” Mikasa smiles slowly. “ _Oh_ , is that why the lights are always off in here?”

“What?”

“You’re too short to reach the chord yourself.”

Annie stops what she’s doing to give Mikasa a warning look.

“Is that why the air is so cold, too? You can’t reach the fan? Why not get Mina to do it for you? She’s your roommate, she’d understand.”

“The air is cold because we like it cold. And for the record, Mina isn’t much taller than me.”

“Still a little bit taller.”

“Either turn on the damn light or stuff it.”

Mikasa reaches up with exaggerated ease and pulls on the chord dangling from the ceiling. With one click, the room is flooded with light. The shredded paper in Annie’s hair is much more prominent under the glow of the pale, yellow ceiling light. Mikasa laughs.

“What?”

“Paper.”

Annie rolls her eyes and spends a few more minutes digging around her room. “I can’t find it. Can you call me?”

Mikasa stares at her quietly.

“Oh. Right.”

“Where’s Mina? She has your number, doesn’t she?”

“She’s out somewhere.” Annie waves a hand absently. “I’ll just write yours down and put it in my phone when I find it.” She pulls a pencil and a loose piece of paper off of her desk.

Mikasa reads it off to her and, when she’s done writing it down, asks, “Want me to turn off the fan?”

“No. Why would I want that?”

“You’re too short to do it yourself.”

Annie isn’t the least bit flattered or amused. “We ended up turning off the light in an attempt to turn the fan on. The fan stays.”

“Has it been like this the entire year? Why didn’t you get Reiner or Bertholdt to help? They’re tall.”

“It’s _fine_. We didn’t mind. We have desk lamps and a window.”

“Well, now the light’s back on. Your tall-,” Mikasa frowns, unsure of what to call herself. In the end she settles on, “ _Person_ came to the rescue.”

Annie sits down on her bed. “Person?”

“Your tall person.”

“Person?” She repeats.

Mikasa nods. “I’m your person.”

“That sounds weird.” She quirks an eyebrow at her.

Mikasa shrugs and turns to leave. “Text me when you find your phone.”

“Well, wait. You don’t have to leave right now.” Annie picks at a loose thread on her sleeve. “Want to watch a movie?”

Mikasa debates it for a moment. She does have work she should probably do, not to mention Armin and Eren will probably be looking for her.

“What do you have?”

Annie shrugs. “Whatever’s on the internet.” She raises a hand to fiddle with her bun. Her hair looks soft and would probably be nice to touch, if not for all the paper.

“You know, you still have paper in your hair.”

“Do you want to watch a movie or not? It’s a yes or no kind of thing.”

Mikasa sits down next to her and pulls Annie’s hair out of its bun.

“What are you doing?”

“Pick a movie.”

“What are you doing?” She repeats.

“I’m being your person.” Mikasa starts picking paper out of Annie’s hair. When Annie tries to protest, she tosses it at her face.

Annie sighs, gives in, and starts searching for movies.


	20. Smooth Moves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don't always happen the way they do in movies. Things are always, like, six times more mortifying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT:
> 
> Thank a thousand times for all the support and comments and everything, you guys. Writing this has been an adventure; the sort of adventure I don't normally partake in. I'm glad so many people have enjoyed it!
> 
> That said, I should probably note that I think this story is going to get wrapped up soon. I think there may be two or three chapters left at most. Then again, this is coming from the person who originally thought this was going to be a one-shot, and then thought it was just gonna be five or so chapters. Who knows.
> 
> Anyways, thanks, everybody.

Mikasa is dumb. Mikasa is dumb, dumb, dumb. Mikasa is so dumb. Smartest in their class? No. Dumbest. For sure.

It isn’t her fault. She panicked. But she panicked because she’s dumb. It’s definitely her fault.

“Calm down, jeez, you look like you’re about to have some sort of attack.”

Mikasa just makes a distressed noise in the back of her throat and continues to be rooted to the spot while Annie digs around for the tissues that “Mina probably keeps around here somewhere.” She conducts her search with only one hand, the other clutched over the lower half of her face.

“I’m so sorry.” She says again.

Annie lets out a soft victory cry and pulls a smashed box of tissues out from under the deep recesses of her bed. “Found them.” She plucks a few from the ruined box and starts to wipe the blood from her face.

It had been going so well at first. It had been a little awkward, sure, but it wasn’t _bad_. Just new.

To be fair all they were doing was watching movies and that probably doesn’t warrant as much nervousness as Mikasa had initially felt. The first night they did this, she had spent most of the movie sitting rigidly next to Annie. It wasn’t until the last few minutes of the film that Annie scoffed and elbowed her, saying something condescending and a little rude about how her stiffness was ruining the movie.

‘ _I guess we’re even now_ ,’ Mikasa thinks as she watches Annie tilt her head back in an attempt to stem the blood gushing from her nose.

The second time hadn’t been so awful. It was a few days after their first date (and Mikasa still isn’t sure if that was detention or hanging out in Annie’s room afterwards). Sasha had gone off to who-knows-where and Annie had _finally_ found her phone and texted her asking if she was busy. The excuse she offered was that Mina had some of her friends over and she found them annoying. She ended up immediately flopping down next to Mikasa on her bed and taking a nap, so maybe that was the truth, but when she woke up they put on a movie and that time Mikasa actually managed to not sit as if she had some sort of pole up her ass.

“Calm down.” Annie repeats, glancing over at her. “Do _not_ puke in my room.”

The third time (third date?) had just been yesterday, actually. It was a Friday night, so of course Sasha was out partying, so Annie came over to her room again. It was weird at first, because normally her Friday nights were spent in solitude and so she was used to that privacy, but it was kind of nice to have Annie being quiet and solitary in there with her. They didn’t watch a movie, but they sat together and read books. Mikasa even worked up the nerve to put an arm around Annie’s shoulders. Annie hadn’t seemed to mind; she didn’t give Mikasa any weird looks or make an attempt to pull away, so Mikasa took it as a win.

“At least sit down, Mikasa. You’re freaking me out.”

If she was going to fuck up, she guesses it is better it happened sooner rather than later, before she finally gave in to Armin’s relentless pestering and told him what she _thought_ was going on between her and Annie, before she made Eren promise not to say any more mean things about Annie, before Annie finally moved back to their lunch table. It’ll be like this whole thing- whatever it is- never happened, and while that bums Mikasa out a little bit, maybe it’s for the best.

It just kills her, though. Things had been going so well. They talked about as much as always, but now there was at least the acknowledgement that they sort of liked each other and they spent a considerable amount of time together now as compared to before.

She hadn’t been expecting Annie to ask her to come over tonight because they had been together yesterday, but she wasn’t going to complain either.

It was the normal routine at first. They didn’t talk much unless it was about which movie they’d be watching, Mikasa complained a bit about how cold it was, maybe teased her a bit about not being able to reach the fan, Annie told her to shut up. Mikasa started off early on with her arm around Annie’s shoulders, probably in an attempt to prove to herself that she _wasn’t_ nervous doing these things _at all_. Annie didn’t question it, instead shifting and resting her head on Mikasa’s shoulder. Mikasa spent a few minutes panicking over whether or not Annie could hear or feel her heartbeat through her shoulder. Normal stuff, probably.

The movie Annie had picked was boring. God, it was so boring. Annie had talked about it being one of her favorites so Mikasa figured she should just be strong and put up with it, but it was so _boring_. Mikasa wasn’t totally sure what it was about- it was some sort of gritty fantasy romance, maybe? She had no idea. She kept getting distracted by other things, like the fact that Mikasa could smell the shampoo in Annie’s hair, which was nice, or the fact that her hood was bunched up a little uncomfortably against Mikasa’s arm, which was definitely starting to fall asleep, which was decidedly not so nice.

Mikasa had shifted a little, hoping to at least get the blood flowing back into her arm. Annie turned to look at her, eyebrows raised, silently asking if she was alright (and Mikasa took a small comfort in the fact that Annie seemed just as skittish as she felt).

Her hair was down. Mikasa really, really liked it when Annie’s hair was down. She figured, hey, if she was already moving her arm, why not touch Annie’s hair? So she brought her hand forward and touched the back of her head gently.

What happened next was totally unexpected and Mikasa can’t be faulted for it no matter how much it actually was her fault.

Annie blinked and started to lean forward. Her eyes fluttered shut.

Mikasa froze. Mikasa panicked. Mikasa fucked up.

Was Annie trying to kiss her? Judging by the way she was starting to tilt her head, yes. Mikasa should kiss her back. Yes. That was the appropriate thing to do in this situation, yes. Mikasa should kiss her back. Mikasa should-

But Mikasa was a little too nervous and a little too eager, and she surged forward a little too quickly, and she didn’t even take aim (and apparently that’s important in these situations) and ended up head-butting Annie in the nose. How do you even- how did she even- she _head-butted_ her in the _nose_.

“Does blood make you squeamish or something?” Annie asks, mercifully jolting Mikasa out of her stupor, but not before she can relive that awful, terrible moment at least thirty-eight times.

“I’m fine.” She croaks. “I’m so sorry.”

Annie pulls the tissue away from her face. “Am I still bleeding?”

“No. But I’m-,”

“Apologize one more time and we’ll get to see how much blood I can make come out of _your_ nose.”

Mikasa snaps her teeth shut. Annie hates her. That’s it, that’s all there is.

The movie is still playing. Dramatic music fills the room as the strapping but rugged protagonist pulls his girl in for a romantic, moving, _successful_ kiss.

She hates this movie.

Annie wads up her used, bloody tissues in a few fresh ones and tosses them into the trashcan by her desk. She sits down on her bed and pulls her computer into her lap. She pauses the movie.

Mikasa isn’t sure if she should leave or if she should wait and give Annie the satisfaction of kicking her out.

Annie doesn’t look up at her for a long time, focusing on the computer screen. She squints at it and mumbles, “Where were we?” once or twice.

After a while, she glances at Mikasa. “What are you doing?”

‘ _Here it comes_ ,’ Mikasa braces herself.

“Are you going to sit back down or what?”

“Pardon?”

Annie gestures to the open spot next to her, then at the screen. “I can’t remember where we left off. Can you?”

“Oh god. Did I hit you that hard?”

Annie raises her eyebrows. “Mikasa, your head is not that hard. Eren’s probably is, maybe.” She jerks her head at the screen. “I’ve seen this movie over and over; it’s all familiar to me. So are you going to sit down?”

“You’re not mad?”

Annie runs a hand over her face, exasperated, only to wince when she touches her nose. “I’m not mad.”

“I’m so-,”

“Don’t.” Annie points at her. “I’m serious, don’t. Come on, sit down.”

Mikasa hesitantly does as Annie tells her.

“Just don’t try to kiss me.” Annie tells her right as Mikasa starts to feel comfortable again.

Mikasa freezes. “I wouldn’t- I wasn’t- I-,”

“I’m joking.” Annie says. “We need to work on that whole knowing-when-we’re-joking thing.”

Mikasa rubs her forehead.

“Seriously, Mikasa, it’s fine.”

“I’m a fuck-up.”

Annie elbows her. “Yeah, but at least you’re not Ymir.”

Mikasa knows Annie is probably only saying that to make her feel better. It definitely works.

“Okay, but seriously. Where were we at when you head-butted me?”

Mikasa thinks about telling Annie she wasn’t paying attention because her movie sucks, but she definitely owes her so she gives the best guess she can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm not gonna lie I was cracking up writing this chapter.


	21. Study Hard and (Maybe) You Will Succeed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In all the excitement, it seems some of our heroes have forgotten that finals week is a thing that happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wins the award for getting away from me. Why is it so long. IDK. It's six in the morning, but that doesn't come as much of a surprise.

“I’m so glad you’re back.” Connie says a little tearfully, extending his hands across the table so that one is on Reiner’s and the other is resting on Bertholdt’s.

“Uh… yeah…” Bertholdt slides his hand away from Connie. “Right.”

“This is great and all, but…” Eren’s upper lip twitches up to bare his teeth. “Now _she_ is sitting with us.”

“Are you referring to Ymir, or Annie?” Sasha asks. “Cause I’m cool with Ymir.”

“You’re only saying that because she’s sitting right next to you.” Eren seethes before Ymir can let that go to her head. “ _You have no guts_. But anyways I’m obviously talking about-,” Armin’s and Mikasa’s feet collide as they both simultaneously try to kick him under the table. They sort of succeed, at least enough to make Eren shut up, but they end up hurting each other more than Eren.

“The table _is_ way more crowded, though.” Jean says sullenly, but a small part of Mikasa suspects he is only upset because the return of Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie in addition to the arrival of Krista and Ymir have forced him to sit further away from her than he normally does. According to Eren, he hasn’t given up on his “hopeless, ridiculous crush,” but that could just be because, as far as everyone else knows, Mikasa and Annie are only barely back to the way things were over a month ago.

“The more the merrier.” Marco points out. “I’m glad we’re all eating together!”

A distracted “Hmmm,” is all Mikasa offers to the conversation. She has just gotten to the good part of her book, and even though she’s read it several times before it is far more interesting than their inane chatter.

“Hey, Mikasa, you’ve hardly touched your food.” Eren says. “You feeling okay? Are you upset? Does _someone_ need to move?” He fixes a pointed glare on Annie, who is sitting to Mikasa’s right. Annie keeps eye contact with him, unimpressed.

“It’s alright.” To prove her point, she picks up her fork with her left hand and jabs it at a pile of carrots.

“Is your hand okay?” Armin asks hesitantly.

Confused, Mikasa waves her fork around to show it to him.

“No. Your other hand. The one you’re _supposed_ to hold the fork with?”

“Oh. Yeah. It’s fine.” She pulls her hand up from under the table and shows it to him. When he is satisfied that all is well, she returns it to where it had previously been sitting almost-but-not-quite on top of Annie’s.

Annie doesn’t look at her at all- she’s still having a passive aggressive staring contest with Eren.

Armin looks at her and then at Annie, worried. Mikasa almost feels a little bad, because she knows he really cares, but she figures he’ll get over it or figure it out eventually.

She knows that, a week-and-a-half ago, he would have seen Mikasa and Annie sitting together and jumped to conclusions before he even noticed her using her left hand. Now, though, he thinks that Annie and Mikasa are only tolerating each other for the sake of everyone else. He had visibly winced when Annie had slunk over to the table and taken the only open seat, which happened to be next to Mikasa. He had very cautiously offered to switch seats and everything. “It’s really crowded, huh.” He had said in his not-subtle-because-it’s-too-subtle tone of voice. “Do you want to sit on the end of the bench, Mikasa? I don’t mind moving.”

She had just shrugged and kept reading her book, not even initially aware of what his intentions were.

Secrecy hadn’t been their original intention. They never talked to each other about telling anyone else but they also didn’t make some sort of pact to make sure their relationship never saw the light of day. It’s just, Annie doesn’t divulge a lot of personal information and Mikasa hasn’t spent much time with her boys this past week. Armin, as Eren worriedly texted her one night, was worried she was avoiding him because he prodded her into the whole Annie thing, and while Mikasa had reassured them both that this definitely was not the case, she didn’t tell them what was going on. Part of her was (is) worried Eren would get jealous. She doesn’t want him thinking his fears have come true and she is leaving him behind for new people.

Another thing is- it’s just so new. It’s only been a week since they started this thing. They haven’t even used the g-word yet, and after the absolute disaster that was Saturday they haven’t spent much more time with each other.

Also, whenever Armin was still trying to ask about it, he kept defaulting to super-casual-and-vague mode. It sort of annoyed her (okay, really annoyed her) so she ended up being obscenely vague in retaliation. She had meant to open up a little later, but then he assumed the worst and she hasn’t gotten around to correcting him yet.

Her bad.

“So, who is ready for finals week?” Ymir asks suddenly, bringing all conversation to a full stop.

“What.” Eren whispers.

“Oh no.” Jean moans.

“Well fuck.” Krista rests her forehead in her hands.

Connie and Sasha share panicked looks. “It is _not_ already finals week.” Sasha says firmly.

“It’s not.” Mikasa agrees absently. “It’s next week.”

“Oh, like _that’s_ any better!” Connie wails.

Sasha shrugs. “Well, it’s a little better.”

“Is this a late April Fools’ day joke?” Jean asks.

“The only late April Fools’ day joke is you.” Eren retorts. After a beat he says, “Sorry, Jean, reflex. I agree with you.”

“How are you guys all caught off guard by this?” Bertholdt asks, disbelief spurring him to speak over everyone else. “Our teachers have literally been talking about this for weeks. Right, Reiner?” He looks over at his boyfriend.

Reiner is staring forward with dead eyes, his lips silently forming the words, ‘ _finals week_ ,’ over and over.

Ymir sighs through her nose. “You try to make polite conversation and end up sending half the table into shock.”

Mikasa thinks that a statement like that is not any less likely to send these people reeling.

“Is it really next week?” Krista mumbles into her palms.

“Yes.” Ymir sighs. “Want me to help you study?”

“Yes!”

Ymir whips her head around to look at Connie. Her eyebrows lift so fast, Mikasa is impressed they didn’t take off into the atmosphere. “The offer wasn’t being extended to you, baldy.”

“No, no, this is a great idea!” Marco says. “We can all get together and study together this weekend! It’ll be fun!”

“I don’t think that’s _anybody’s_ idea of fun.” Jean grumbles. “Except maybe Armin’s. No offense, Armin.”

Armin shrugs and bobs his head to the side. “It’s true.”

“Let’s be honest, though. Most of you are probably going to fail without the extra help.” Bertholdt isn’t pulling any punches today. Mikasa is proud of him, even though he isn’t her boy to be proud of.

“Look, this isn’t some huge event that you need to RSVP to or something. Just show up to the library if you want to study and if not, fuck off. And just so we’re clear, I’d rather you do the second one.”

“Then it’s settled! We’ll meet in the library tonight after dinner.” Marco says enthusiastically.

“Eren, you’re going.” Mikasa tells him before he can make up an excuse as to why he can’t.

Predictably, he starts whining. “I study better on my own!”

“You procrastinate better on your own.”

Eren hangs his head, but he knows she’s right.

Marco is still gushing. “This is gonna be great.”

His enthusiasm is infectious; Armin is grinning wider than Mikasa has seen in days. “We’ll get so much work done!”

He’s dead wrong, of course.

Later, when they finally gather in the library (which Pixis so kindly agree to leave open for them all night), it takes an entire hour for everyone to settle down and actually hit the books. Connie and Sasha keep making farting noises with their armpits to the tune of their school anthem. Reiner insists he can _definitely_ juggle all of his textbooks, no problem, and goes on to demonstrate. Jean makes a gun out of a pen and some rubber bands and opens fire on Marco, but “misses” and ends up hitting Eren instead, which of course leads to a long and involved battle of one-upmanship that ends in Reiner, Bertholdt, and Mikasa having to join forces to keep Eren from strangling Jean.

Things have finally calmed down, now. For the past few hours the library has been deathly silent, save for the occasional question directed at her or Armin, or the not-so-occasional argument between Jean and Eren (who have, at this point, been relocated to opposite ends of the table).

Mikasa sits somewhere near the middle of the table, staring aimlessly at her notes as the words blur together. She can hear Eren grinding his teeth from across the table. Years and years of studying with him have desensitized her to the noise and so she doesn’t pay it much heed, but Jean keeps passive-aggressively tapping his pen on the table in retaliation. Or maybe he isn’t even paying attention to Eren; maybe he’s just as frustrated as Eren is, at this point. She actually isn’t sure.

Across the library, Ymir is lounging on a couch and quietly reading over some of her notes while Krista listens, head in her lap. Mikasa had never thought she would ever find _anything_ about Ymir to be soothing, but the soft murmur of her voice works wonders on her mounting headache. Ymir hasn’t even said one thing that could come off as rude so far. The entire experience is just really surreal.

That may have something to do with how late it is, though. They’ve been studying for hours. “They” being everyone but herself and Armin- they’re there for moral support, mostly, and if anyone has any questions. In theory she has it easy, but explaining the structure of an essay to Reiner three (four, five) times while Eren and Jean get into a shouting match over which physics formula is the coolest has taken its toll. She wishes Armin would wake up already so that she could take a nap and leave these people in his hands.

Armin isn’t the only one who has escaped to the blissful realm of sleep. At the far end of the table, Sasha and Connie are snoring away. They’re weirdly in-sync- Sasha sounds pretty similar to gravel in a blender as she inhales deeply, and Connie follows up by breathing out with an annoying, high-pitched whistle. It’s puzzling to Mikasa, especially considering that Sasha doesn’t normally snore. It seems to only happen when she and Connie are asleep in the vicinity of each other. Maybe their friendship runs so deep that their minds, when simultaneously in a state of unconsciousness, connect together. She wonders if this affects their dreams, if their subconscious selves know the secrets of the universe because of this bond.

Hm. Maybe she can write her final essay in Petra’s class on that. In her delirious, punch-drunk state of exhaustion, it actually seems like a pretty good idea.

Eren mumbles something that Mikasa doesn’t quite hear, but she knows well enough what he’s saying. “Praying for our teachers’ deaths will neither cancel nor prepare you for finals, Eren.”

He groans like all of his carefully laid plans have been thwarted and pushes his notebook away from him so forcefully, it flies off the table and lands somewhere near the armchair Armin is napping in.

“Pick it up.” Mikasa orders gently but firmly. Eren sighs and complies with uncharacteristic obedience.

Jean opens his mouth, and Mikasa braces herself for his trademark phrase of the night. “I can’t believe next week is finals week.” He’s been saying it all night, always as if repeating it just _one more time_ will make him believe. “Wasn’t it just my birthday?”

“For once, I’m going to agree with Jean.” Eren grumbles as he flops back down in his chair. “I’m pretty sure that was, like, yesterday.”

“It was three weeks ago.” Marco supplies helpfully. Eren groans and slams his face down onto the table.

Connie jerks awake, startled. Sasha’s snoring abruptly stops, but she continues to drool peacefully all over her (unopened) notebook.

“Time is it?” Connie rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

Jean checks his watch and groans. “It’s almost midnight.”

“What?” He whines. “I can’t do this much longer, man.”

“Do what? Sleep?” Jean retorts.

“Have you tried sleeping on one of these tables? Super uncomfortable.” Connie stretches. His back pops in a few places. “Where are Annie and Bertholdt?”

“Bert and I have a coffee maker in our room. They went to make us some.” Reiner answers numbly. He doesn’t look up from his essay practice sheet. The only things on it are his name and the word ‘the’ crossed out and rewritten several times.

“Are we allowed to have coffee makers?”

“Are high schools allowed to issue mindless, pointless tests at the end of the school year which may determine how well people handle test-taking situations but do little to actually tell anyone how much of the class material students have retained, in which case they’ll just forget it all once the test is done with anyways because none of it is applicable in the real world?” Eren says darkly.

“Come on, now.” Marco says uncertainly, “This is a really good school.”

“If it’s such a good school, why am I pulling an all-nighter to prepare for my finals?” Jean is scratching something aimlessly into his notebook with a pen. “Shouldn’t I know this stuff, if this school is so good?”

“Not like you pay a bunch of attention in class anyways.” Connie shrugs. “If it doesn’t come naturally to you, you don’t put an any effort. That’s why your grades are worse than Eren’s.”

“ _What_ did you just say?! How do you even _know_ that- not that’s it’s true!”

“Hey, can you guys shut up? We’re actually trying to get work done over her.” Ymir complains.

“I just feel like finals week sort of snuck up on us.” Eren says, ignoring Ymir completely. “Where did the time go? Are we _really_ juniors, or is this all just a belated April Fool’s day joke?”

Mikasa is about to tell Eren to go to bed because things never get pretty when he gets to this point, but just then the door swings open. Bertholdt shuffles in, holding a tray of precariously perched coffee mugs. Annie follows, holding just a single cup for herself.

“Thanks. I’ll help you hand these out.” Reiner stands up and takes a mug off of the tray before it tips over. Bertholdt looks relieved and touched, but Mikasa is pretty sure Reiner is just looking for an excuse to not work on his practice essay.

Annie deftly plucks Reiner’s cup from him just as he is about to take a sip and slides it towards Mikasa. “Got you this.” She sits down next to her, another warm mug cupped between her hands. “You look awful.”

“Thanks.”

Annie grunts and looks down at the textbook that has been laying open next to Mikasa for hours, subtly reserving Annie’s place. With a shrug, she flips it closed.

“You should probably read over that. Bertholdt says your math is terrible.”

Annie calls her bluff almost immediately. “He values his nipples too much to say something like that.”

“Your math is still terrible, though. I’m better than you at pretty much everything, but with math it’s just ridiculous.”

“Normally I like competition, but who gives a shit about most of these classes.”

Mikasa rests her chin on her fist and sips her coffee, even though it’s far too hot. She stares at Annie, unflinching, even as it scalds her tongue.

Annie rolls her eyes and relocates to the last open couch, over by the door. She takes her book and coffee with her, though, so Mikasa counts it as a win.

“Hey! Um,” Bertholdt takes the spot Annie was just occupying, now that he is no longer overseeing coffee distribution. “Hey.”

Mikasa looks Bertholdt over cautiously. He looks like he’s about to handle a wounded animal, looking at her with big, sad eyes.

“Hi?”

“Look, um. I’m sorry things are weird now.” He’s whispering, but at this point everyone is so brain-dead and so focused on coffee that she doubts it’s necessary.

“Why would things be weird?” She asks, rubbing at her temples. She’s probably forgetting something because she’s tired, but she has no idea why things would be weird between her and Bertholdt.

“Annie.” He says softly. “Armin told me what happened. I was waiting to talk to you, but it’s hard to catch you.”

She’s still not following. If he wanted to find her, why not look for her in her room?

Oh, yeah, she’s been spending quite a bit of time with Annie. That’s a thing.

“I know you and Annie weren’t close to begin with, but the way you’re avoiding each other now…” He gestures to where she is sprawled out on the coach, “… it just has to suck, and I’m sorry.”

She squints at him.

And then, as he gears up to launch into some sort of speech, it hits her.

Oh. _Oh_. Right. Annie obviously hasn’t told him and Reiner, just like Mikasa hasn’t told Eren or Armin.

It keeps happening. Nobody ever seems to understand what’s going on with anybody else, but they keep making assumptions like they do. Even she and Annie are guilty of it, especially when it comes to each other. It’s a never-ending circle of guesswork and misinterpreted cues, of overthinking the wrong things and glazing over the important details, listening to the wrong people and assuming the knowledge given out by someone else is more accurate than what you have observed for yourself.

Before Mikasa can stop herself, her lips spread into a smile. Bertholdt trails off mid-sentence and watches in horror as her shoulders start to shake. Somewhere, the part of her brain that hasn’t been drowned in exhaustion and cheap caffeine tries to clutch at her last shreds of dignity; the rest of her brain pulls itself up out of the pit it has sunk into and reminds that tiny island of sanity of the events of the past five weeks.

The first laugh is nothing but a breathy huff, but that’s all it takes to shatter any self-restraint she has left. Like water from a shattered dam, she starts gasping out an ugly, breathless laugh- the sort that can only be achieved in the dead of night when sleep has been neglected for far too long.

“Mikasa.” Bertholdt says weakly. “You’re scaring me.”

She’s scaring herself, too. Her ribs are starting to hurt. She curls in on herself, hoping to calm down, but just ends up falling out of her chair.

“Bertholdt, what did you _do_?” Jean asks, standing up.

“You _broke her_.” Eren hisses, and she can just imagine him preparing to leap over the table, feet aimed at Bertholdt’s jugular, and somehow that doesn’t make it any easier to stop laughing.

Sasha is the one to kneel down next to her and help her to her feet. Mikasa doesn’t know when she woke up. Did she wake her up? Oops. Sorry, Sasha. “It’s bedtime.”

“I’m fine.” She breathes before she starts hiccupping and giggling again.

As Sasha carefully guides her out of the library, Annie catches her eye. The small blonde raises an eyebrow- a very clear ‘ _what the fuck_?’ She gets to her feet with a sigh, tossing her math book aside. “I’ve got her, Sasha.”

“I’m fine,” Mikasa repeats when Sasha lets go of her and Annie takes her place.

“Who cares?” Annie whispers. “I’m using you as an excuse to bounce. I’m tired of Reiner’s constipated essay face.” She hesitantly laces her fingers through Mikasa’s.

Mikasa yawns, and like magic the fog in her brain starts to clear. “Ugh. I think I’m dying.”

“You definitely sounded like it back there. Like an asphyxiating donkey.”

“It was _funny_.”

“What’d he say?”

“He came over to apologize because he thought you rejected me.”

Annie looks at her incredulously. “And that’s funny because…?”

Mikasa shrugs. “It just was.”

“The idea of me turning you down?” Annie huffs. “Not like you’re irresistible or anything.”

“Well it definitely wasn’t funny when I thought you actually had.” She bumps against Annie’s shoulder. “Hey, wanna sleep over?”

“Are you going to head-butt me in the face?”

“Only if you try to kiss me.”

Annie snorts. “After hearing you laugh like that, shouldn’t be a problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is in sight. I'm thinking next chapter will be the last; then I'll write a companion piece from Annie's (maybe more) POV, but I think that one really will be just a one-shot. A very long one-shot, because it's going to cover a lot of stuff, some of it even from before Krista ever went up to talk to poor Mikasa, but a one-shot nonetheless.  
> Unless it turns into a 20+ chapter behemoth like this did, but I'm not counting on it. (It's not even funny to think about oh dear god.)


	22. Object Permanence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When saying your final goodbyes, be sure not to panic. Remember to breathe. Things that are not immediately within your line of sight still exist. That's called object permanence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long. Things picked up a bit here at school because finals are coming up, but who cares about that, eh?  
> Without further ado, I present our final chapter.
> 
> (and, as always, I apologize for any gross typos/grammatical errors.)

Arms wrap tightly around her shoulders and Sasha buries her face into Mikasa’s neck. “I’m going to miss you so much!”

Mikasa pats her back hesitantly. “It’s just for a few months.”

Sasha wails and grips her tighter.

“If you’re like this saying goodbye to me, I fear for Connie.”

“It’s fine, he’s going camping with me. What about you? Will you be okay when I’m gone?” Sasha asks worriedly. “You and Eren are staying for a few more days, aren’t you?”

“I’ll be fine. Armin will be here, too.”

Sasha sniffles. “How about Annie? It’s totally fine if she sleeps in my bed… it doesn’t belong to me anymore, after all.”

Mikasa tugs at her scarf. Sasha hadn’t even questioned it once when she walked in sometime Saturday morning and found Mikasa and Annie curled up on opposite ends of Mikasa’s bed (which had been disappointing to wake up to; Mikasa had hoped, when she invited Annie over, they would cuddle or something, but Mikasa fell asleep as soon as she sat down so that obviously didn’t happen).  This is actually the first Sasha has mentioned it.

“I’m not sure when she’s leaving, but I’ll be sure to let her know.”

Sasha nods sadly. “I would make Connie promise to take care of you if I weren’t taking him home.” She says. “I’m sorry.”

“No, he should do something fun for his birthday to forget that it happened on the last day of finals.” She says this because Sasha needs the reassurance, not because she is actually sad that there will be one less person for her to not hang out with.

Sasha still looks like she’s fetching wildly for anything she can say to make this better. Mikasa fights back a sigh and reminds herself to appreciate the fact that Sasha just cares about her a lot. “It’ll be okay, Sasha. I _promise_ I’ll be fine.”

The tension finally leaves Sasha, but she still looks unsure. “I stocked up my food drawer.” Sasha rests a hand on her shoulder. “To sustain you while you’re trapped here.”

It’s a huge gesture coming from Sasha, so even though Mikasa doesn’t think much of the food itself she offers a heartfelt, “Thank you, Sasha. That’s really sweet.”

Sasha smiles, eyes watery, and picks up her suitcase. “Well, I shouldn’t keep my dad waiting.”

“Have fun.”

As soon as the door shuts, the room feels incredibly empty. Sasha’s half of the room- previously covered in posters and food wrappers and the occasional discarded article of clothing- is totally empty. She doesn’t know how Connie went an entire semester without a roommate; it hasn’t even been a full minutes for her and she already misses Sasha.

She guesses it’s just natural to feel that way when saying goodbye to people you enjoy, even if it’s just for a little while.

But she’ll be alright, she thinks as she starts digging through the drawer of food Sasha left for her (Sasha seems to have gone out of her way to stock it with things she knows Mikasa likes, and again Mikasa is touched by her roommate’s thoughtfulness). It’s just for a few days, and she likes privacy. She has always liked privacy. And it’s like she said; in the rare event that she gets lonely, she always has Eren and Armin. Maybe Annie, if she isn’t leaving today. And anyways it’s just a few days; then Dr. Jaeger will be able to pick them up, and then summer will really begin. Eren will be able to get outside and burn off all of that excess energy all hours of the day and night. Maybe she will finally talk to Armin about Annie. Maybe Annie can come over.

Except, Mikasa remembers very suddenly, that Annie lives three hours away.

Mikasa had originally thought that Annie being on the exact opposite end of the floor was a pain in the ass, but in a few days’ time (maybe sooner) she is going to be _three hours away_ for three months.

To Mikasa’s knowledge, Annie doesn’t drive. Mikasa certainly doesn’t.

Suddenly, she doesn’t want the semester to end. She doesn’t want to go home. She isn’t sure that whatever it is she and Annie have is sturdy enough to handle three entire months apart. What if it fades away?

She has to be sure that won’t happen, but she and Annie haven’t even come close to kissing again, or using the g-word at all, and even though she spent the night on Friday it’s not like they stayed up talking or cuddling or doing whatever people who are sort of dating do. They haven’t even talked since then.

Jesus Christ, why do neither of them ever talk.

Mikasa surges to her feet, the food drawer forgotten. She has to take care of this immediately. If it’s going to end, it’s going to be with dignity and clear communication. No dodging around it, no letting it quietly wither and then avoiding each other’s gaze for the entirety of senior year, none of that at all.

Literally, hopefully _none of that at all_. Mikasa isn’t sure why she’s going into this assuming they’re going to break up. She should probably approach Annie with a bit more optimism than this if she wants to avoid that scenario.

She goes straight to Annie’s room, almost aggressively ignoring everyone else in the hall. Reiner tries to say hi, she stalks right past him. Jean asks if she needs anything, she steps deftly around his suitcase. Thomas asks if she’s seen his keys- sorry, Thomas, Mikasa has more important things to do.

She only comes up short when she reaches Eren’s and Armin’s room. The door is open. She can hear some of Eren’s music drifting out into the hallway. She recognizes this as something from one of the playlists he listens to in order to unwind, though to be honest all of his music sounds like what you’d listen to in order to pump up before charging into battle or participating in a sporting event.

She needs to get past without them noticing her. She doesn’t have time to be delayed by them, nor does she have time to hastily explain _why_ she doesn’t have time to be delayed by them. The clock is ticking. Annie could be gone any second and Mikasa _can’t_ have that.

Maybe if she darts across fast enough, they won’t see her. Considering that Eren is listening to his “relaxing” music, she can assume he is taking a nap. Armin could be doing a number of things- reading, browsing the internet, playing solitaire- at his desk, meaning his back would be facing the door.

The odds are in her favor. She’s going to dash past their room. From there, it’s just two doors to Annie’s room.

“Mikasa!” Calls the person she probably wants to run into even less than her boys.

An elbow comes to rest on her shoulder. She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath. Maybe this isn’t real. Maybe, when she opens her eyes, Ymir will go away.

“How about those finals, huh?” She scratches at the bottom of her chin. “How’d you do?”

“Fine, I suppose. If you’ll excuse me-,”

“What’s the rush, huh?” Ymir asks. “It’s not like you’re gonna be late for class.”

“I’m on my way to speak with someone.”

“Eren and Armin?” Ymir guesses.

Mikasa holds her breath and prays that by invoking their names, she didn’t just summon them to the hall.

“You three basically live together, you see them all the time!” Ymir continues with a little more volume and proximity than Mikasa is actually comfortable with. “Can’t you spare a little time to talk to me? We’re friends aren’t we?”

Mikasa’s list of people she considers to be her friends is very short. It consists of Eren and Armin, probably Sasha, and _maybe_ Annie (she’s still really confused about that). She is pretty sure none of those people are Ymir.

She’s about to tell Ymir as much when Krista, her saving grace, comes around the corner looking stern. “Ymir, quit antagonizing Mikasa. She’s obviously in a rush.”

Ymir immediately leaves Mikasa to latch onto her, cooing. The sound might actually make Mikasa more uncomfortable than Ymir’s lack of respect for personal space.

“Sorry.” Krista sighs, supporting her girlfriend with as much dignity as she can muster. “She’s been doing a bit of… _celebrating_.” She looks up at her and says softly, “Hey, why don’t you go finish packing?”

Ymir straightens up with a groan. “We’re leaving tonight.”

_Thank God_ , Mikasa sighs inwardly.

Krista starts to guide Ymir back down the hall until Ymir finally starts shuffling her own feet. When she is satisfied that she won’t topple over or something, she turns back to Mikasa. “Thanks for all your help, by the way.”

“With what?”

Krista gestures vaguely at Ymir. Mikasa squints at her. Krista gestures again.

After a few moments of awkward silence she adds, “You know…”

Mikasa shakes her head.

Krista sighs and fixes her gaze on the ceiling. “Your _advice_. I’m not sure that I ever thanked you for it, but it’s been helpful for more things than just that.”

“ _Oh_.” Mikasa breathes. “That. Um, no problem. And I guess I should thank you too?”

“For what? Wasn’t the entire last half of the semester a living hell because of all this? Ymir told me you cried at one point.”

“Ymir is awful and a _liar_.” Mikasa answers firmly.

Krista’s eyes narrow. Her glare isn’t particularly impressive, but considering that it is Krista, the fact that she is glaring at all makes Mikasa feel ashamed. “Mikasa.”

“Sorry.” Mikasa sighs. “I think seeing Eren interact with Jean has left me with a few bad habits. Ymir isn’t… _awful_.”

Krista taps her foot expectantly.

 “I’m not taking back the liar comment.” Mikasa says firmly. “She told you Annie and I were dating at a time when we clearly weren’t.”

Krista sighs and looks off to the side, clearly unsatisfied but willing to concede the point. “To be fair, the conversation didn’t go entirely like that… But, taking everything into consideration, that’s probably the best I can expect.”

Mikasa nods and glances over her shoulder at Annie’s door. She still needs to get past Eren and Armin.

“Well,” Mikasa says, gearing up to stealthily close the distance between her and that door, “I should be going.”

“Me too. If Ymir runs into a teacher, she’ll get into trouble…”

“Good luck.”

Krista laughs drily and hurries off to catch up with Ymir.

She spares another glance at her boys’ open door. Eren’s music is still filling the hall with a screeching guitar solo that sets her teeth on edge. Good, he’s probably dead asleep.

She still has no idea what Armin is doing. She doesn’t have any more time to waste, though.

She darts past the doorway, sparing a glance in against her better judgment.

As se suspected, Eren is asleep. Armin is on his bed, writing something in a notebook. He looks up. For a split second, their eyes meet. He starts to call out to her.

Then Mikasa is past the doorway. She pounds on Annie’s door, praying that she will answer quickly.

The doorknob has barely even turned all the way before Mikasa pushes her way inside, shoving the door shut behind her and slamming her back against it.

Annie frowns at her from a safe distance away, hand half-raised to cover her nose. “What are you doing?”

Mikasa exhales slowly and starts to explain, but then there is a light tapping on the wood at her back.

“Don’t answer it.” Mikasa says. “It’s Armin.”

Annie rolls her eyes and waves at Mikasa to move. She shakes her head. Annie pushes her aside and cracks the door open. “Yeah?”

“Hey!” As Mikasa feared; it’s Armin. She’s standing silently on the other side of the door, but she can hear him clear as day. “Have you seen Mikasa? I could have sworn she just passed by.”

Annie stares at him for a moment. “No.”

“Oh. Well-,”

Annie shuts the door on him. She stands there for a few seconds, frowning at the wood. Then she raises an eyebrow at Mikasa. “Why are we avoiding your best friend?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

She nods slowly. “And we’re avoiding Armin because…?”

“It’s personal. About us.”

Annie’s nostrils flare, but that’s the only response she offers. Mikasa can hear the blood roaring in her ears.

“Nope.” Annie reaches for the door.

“ _Annie_.” Mikasa catches her wrist. “Summer is coming up.”

“I know.”

“You live three hours away.”

“I _know_.” Annie wrenches her arm out of Mikasa’s grasp.

Mikasa sighs and rubs at the corners of her eyes. “I just want to know what’s going to happen.”

Annie shrugs. She looks down at the ground and reaches back to pull her hood up.

Mikasa waits for her to make the next move, because she honestly has no idea what she’s supposed to do.

Annie shoves her hands into her pockets. “I don’t want to break up.”

“Me neither. I’m not here to break up with you. But can we do three months away from each other?”

“We did sixteen years up until now.”

“You know what I mean.”

Annie groans and tilts her head back. Her hood falls off. “I know what you mean.” She turns away from Mikasa. “If you’re going to do it, then do it.”

Mikasa can’t help but crack a little smile. “I just said I didn’t want to. Quit being so dramatic.”

“You know, there’s this thing called texting?” Annie holds her hands out in front of her, though she’s still facing away from Mikasa so she isn’t sure what Annie is trying to accomplish. “Amazing.”

Mikasa… actually hadn’t thought about that. She’ll pretend that she totally did though. “I know.”

“Plus, Reiner has a car.” Annie adds. “I could probably persuade him to loan me the car for a day or so.”

“He’d drive all the way out there _and_ trust you with his prized possession?”

“He owes me.” Annie shrugs. “Anyways, he doesn’t have to _know_.”

“Do not steal your best friend’s car.”

“That’s a really strong word.”

“Steal? Or best friend?”

“Both.”

Annie flops down on her bed. She pats the spot next to her, and Mikasa obediently sits down.

“Are we friends?” Mikasa asks.

Annie shrugs. “I guess. I don’t know. There’s a difference between wanting to know someone as a friend and wanting to know them as a… person.”

“Person?”

“You’re my person. Remember?”

Mikasa turns away to hide her smile. That really does sound weird, but it’s cute coming from Annie.

“Anyways, I always thought dating and friendship went hand in hand.” Mikasa tells her.

“Okay, then we’re friends.” Annie sits up to look at her. “But not as much as we’re _girlfriends_.” She stops and makes a face. “That sounds weirder than _person_.”

Mikasa’s lips stretch out of their own volition.

“You look like a dork.” Annie grumbles, cheeks growing red.

“I like it.”

“Looking like a dork?”

“The g-word.”

“The _g-word_.” Annie repeats sardonically. “How’s third grade going, Jean?”

“Shut up.”

Annie laughs under her breath. “You know, even if we don’t see each other all summer, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve…” She trails off, though, reconsidering what she’s about to say.

“What?” Mikasa prompts.

Annie groans and hides her hands in her face. “Look, I’ve felt this way for a while, okay?”

“A while? Like, what, a year or something?”

“Sure.” Annie agrees. “Or something.” She sighs and forces her hands into her lap. “The point is, Mikasa, I know some time away won’t change that for me.”

Hearing that makes her heart flutter. That seals the deal, then.

Mikasa is gonna do it. She’s totally going to do it. She’s going to kiss Annie and _not_ physically injure her face. She’s pumping herself up- all she has to do is just sort of- _lean_ in and- maybe- tilt her head?? So that she doesn’t. Annie’s nose is beautiful, but a bit of an obstacle. Mikasa should be careful. She’d feel bad if- two for two would suck-

“Are you okay?” Annie deadpans. “You look constipated.”

“Trying to kiss you.” Mikasa mumbles.

“By just sitting there? Amazing.” Annie breathes. “So you were trying to draw me in with your powers of seduction. How could I have missed it? That was obviously that sort of face.”

Mikasa frowns and pushes Annie’s shoulder. The blonde sways, but she doesn’t topple over, and that’s sort of disappointing because she deserves it.

“Here.” Annie starts to lean in, but stops abruptly. “Do _not_ give me another nose bleed.”

Mikasa starts to make an offended noise, but then Annie closes the distance between their lips and suddenly Mikasa isn’t so irritated anymore.

“So,” Annie mumbles without even properly pulling away; the movement of her lips against Mikasa’s sends pleasant tingles up and down her spine, “When were you going to tell Armin?”

Mikasa is more civilized, though. She leans back and says, “At this point, it’s sort of like I’m waiting to see how long it takes him to figure it out.”

“Fun, isn’t it?”

“You’re terrible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is, guys. Thanks so much for sticking with me through all of this. It's been a lot of fun, and your support has meant the world. It's the only reason I blew the dust off of it and turned this one-shot into this ridiculous misadventure.  
> Next, I'll finish up working on Annie's (and others????) POV. Not sure how long that'll take me because I'm essentially trying to encompass events that happen before AND during the story. We'll see how that goes??  
> Anyways, it's been a lot of fun. Thanks, everybody.


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